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Israel Shows Journalists Raw Footage of Hamas Attacks
(JTA) Eliyahu Freedman - On Monday, the Israeli army disseminated images and recordings of the Oct. 7 attacks to the international media. In the middle of the screening of the attack footage, Roxane Runel, a reporter for France's M6 television, was one of a number of journalists who stepped out early. "It was too much," she said. "I knew coming here that the hardest thing for me would not be the images but the sound, because you can close your eyes if the images are too much." In addition to clips of Hamas attackers shooting people, taken from the terrorists' body cameras and phones, the 43-minute compilation contained graphic images of children being murdered, bodies burned, civilians being mowed down and other atrocities. The Israeli government's decision to show the footage came as it is increasingly concerned that people are questioning the scale and depravity of Hamas' massacre. Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said, "We are witnessing a Holocaust denial-like phenomenon evolving in real time as people are casting doubt on the magnitude of the atrocities that Hamas committed against our people, and in fact recorded in order to glorify that violence." Chief IDF spokesperson Adm. Daniel Hagari said, "We will not let the world forget who we are fighting," adding that the footage helps Israelis "to understand ourselves what we are fighting for." IDF Maj.-Gen. Mickey Edelstein said the Israeli military has evidence it cannot show of sexual violence committed by the Hamas terrorists. Runel said her personal limit was reached when listening to an audio clip of a call between a Hamas terrorist and his parents, made via the stolen cellphone of an Israeli victim. "He tells them on the phone - with a voice that is so ecstatic - ...over and over again, 'I killed 10 of them.' He was saying this as something he was really proud of." The man's father reacted with praise.