Le Monde collected and analyzed dozens of videos of the group's attack, from CCTV footage to propaganda images. The documents give insight into the plan behind the October 7 attack.
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00:00 The sun had not yet risen in Gaza when Hamas fighters launched Operation Alexa flood on
00:11 Saturday October 7th.
00:17 By car, motorcycle and on foot, dozens of Palestinian commandos advanced toward the
00:23 Israeli border.
00:24 They blinded surveillance cameras and Israeli defence systems and opened at least seven
00:30 breaches in the wall separating Israel from the Gaza Strip.
00:37 Once in Israel, Hamas fighters simultaneously attacked at least six Israeli military bases
00:43 and seven civilian residential areas, including one town, five kibbutzim and the site of the
00:50 Supernova music festival.
00:53 Command has reconstructed Hamas' strategy on October 7th after analysing and verifying
00:58 images from the day of the attack.
01:01 Their strategy involved lightning raids, simultaneous assaults and training.
01:09 Between Palestine and Israel are two kinds of borders, a high-tech fence and a concrete
01:15 wall.
01:17 To cross the border gate, Hamas fighters had to disable its defence posts, which are towers
01:22 topped with remotely operated machine guns.
01:28 Of the five towers filmed by Hamas fighters, at least four were destroyed by an explosive
01:33 device dropped from a drone.
01:36 They continued using drones to target telecommunications infrastructure, like this radio tower near
01:42 the Biri Kibbutz.
01:47 The aim was to blind the Israeli army as fast as possible.
01:53 Elsewhere, Hamas fighters attacked the border more directly.
02:02 By car, by bike and by foot, they were able to break through the border using hand-laid
02:10 explosives, like they did near the Biri Kibbutz.
02:16 A satellite image taken at the Erez checkpoint, north of the Gaza Strip, showed a breach in
02:22 the concrete wall that separated it from Israel, as well as two partial destructions.
02:31 Once the border had been opened, Hamas fighters quickly crossed it on all-terrain vehicles
02:37 and on small motorcycles.
02:41 Images analysed by Le Monde showed at least a dozen commando groups entering Israeli territory
02:46 before the sun had fully risen.
02:54 Less than an hour later, they launched simultaneous assaults on six military camps, six residential
03:01 areas and a festival site.
03:08 At least six of the IDF's permanent military installations were attacked at the same time,
03:14 between 6.30am and 8.30am.
03:18 At the Erez crossing, the Nahal Oz base, the base near the Biri Kibbutz, the Sufa base,
03:28 the Reem base and a facility near the Kibbutz, Kerem Shalom, armed with grenades, rocket
03:36 launches and automatic weapons, Hamas fighters entered the military sites.
03:44 They killed and captured Israeli soldiers, and filmed themselves triumphantly next to
03:50 their bodies.
03:52 At the Nahal Oz base, Hamas used a drone to drop explosives on groups of soldiers and
03:59 tanks.
04:02 Israeli soldiers were taken by surprise.
04:07 At the Sufa base, images showed a lifeless soldier dressed only in his underwear, flak
04:12 jacket and helmet.
04:16 His body lay in front of the door of a dormitory, where at least four other men appeared to
04:21 be dead.
04:24 One of them was still in his pyjamas.
04:27 IDF soldiers may also have been confused by some of the Hamas fighters' uniforms.
04:36 They wore fatigues similar to those worn by the IDF.
04:41 Even their helmets were topped with the same headgear as Israeli soldiers.
04:49 Israeli troops were taken prisoner at the Erez crossing.
04:54 In these images authenticated by Le Monde, at least three men in shorts and with bare
04:59 feet were captured and beaten before being taken away by Hamas.
05:11 As these military sites were being attacked, other Hamas commandos headed for 5 Kibbutzim
05:18 and an Israeli town, all within 7 kilometres of the Gaza border.
05:26 It was at 6.55am at Biri when the first Hamas fighters arrived on foot.
05:33 Going house by house, for almost four hours the commandos massacred Israeli civilians.
05:44 Filmed via CCTV, the first group can be seen collecting the belongings of the dead.
05:51 Later at 10.38am, the same camera filmed another group of two fighters as they arrived at the
05:57 scene in a white vehicle.
05:59 They were armed and dressed as civilians.
06:02 They loaded two lifeless civilians into their vehicle, before disappearing from the frame.
06:13 Three kilometres north, in the Nirim Kibbutz, the militants filmed themselves advancing
06:18 through civilian houses and firing through their windows.
06:23 It was around 8.30am.
06:25 These attacks on civilians only stopped once Hamas fighters decided to leave the Kibbutz,
06:32 or once the IDF arrived on scene.
06:43 Hamas militants likely trained to be able to carry out its operation.
06:48 Training sessions were filmed and published across Hamas propaganda channels.
06:54 One video showed Hamas militiamen practising blowing up a border gate that was very similar
06:59 to the one on the border with Israel.
07:05 One video showed a soldier placing explosives on the dummy fence, before setting it off.
07:13 Another clip showed Hamas fighters, on motorbikes and on foot, crossing the partly destroyed
07:18 barrier.
07:22 These moments were recreated for real on Saturday, October 7th.
07:30 Hamas fighters also trained to fly motorised paragliders, where the pilot is driven by
07:35 a propeller motor in the back.
07:40 They also put this into practice on October 7th.
07:47 A map showing the Hamas fighters' route was found on the body of one of the group's
07:51 attackers who was killed.
07:53 Other small leaflets were also found on his body.
07:57 They showed the IDF's different types of armoured vehicles, and their strengths and
08:02 weaknesses.
08:03 They detailed how to target them, depending on the weaponry available.
08:08 Hamas claimed that nearly 50 sites were attacked by 1,200 of its fighters.
08:14 Meanwhile, the IDF announced it has recovered the bodies of around 1,500 Hamas fighters
08:20 on its territory.
08:23 Israel says more than 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been killed since October
08:29 7th.
08:30 Israel has relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Saturday's attack, according
08:36 to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
08:39 As of October 24th, over 5,000 Palestinians have been killed.
08:45 For more UN videos visit: www.un.org/webcast
08:51 Thanks for watching!