Hamas Fighters’ Orders: ‘Kill as Many People as Possible’

Documents recovered from the bodies of dead militants at the sites of attacks that killed more than 1300 Israelis point to a deliberate strategy to massacre civilians.

Israeli soldiers inspect houses that were destroyed in a Hamas attack on the kibbutz on October 14 in Be'eri, Israel. Picture: Getty

Written orders carried by Hamas fighters sent to attack Israeli towns and settlements last weekend contained the same chilling command: Kill as many people as possible.

Documents recovered from the bodies of dead militants at the sites of attacks that killed more than 1,300 Israelis point to a deliberate strategy to massacre civilians, Israeli officials said.

The similarity of the orders given to attack teams, along with videos posted by the attackers themselves, eyewitness testimony, and the scale of civilian killings in multiple locations — at least 1,000 in total — suggest that the massacre wasn’t a by-product of the attack but a central objective.

A Hamas squad that attacked the farming community of Alumim in southern Israel, was directed to “achieve the highest level of human losses” and then take hostages, according to documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal and which an Israeli official said were authentic.

Destroyed military vehicles in Be'eri, Israel. Picture: Getty

Orders carried by militants sent to attack Sa’ad, a 670-person collective farming community, instructed them to “to take control of the kibbutz, kill as many individuals as possible, and capture hostages until receiving further instructions.” The documents are at odds with assertions by Hamas officials that militants had been told not to kill women and children. The group, designated as a terrorist organisation by the U.S., Israel and others, has blamed civilian deaths on armed Palestinians unaffiliated with Hamas who joined the attack.

“Hamas’s strategy behind this attack was very clear: they were on a mission to hurt and murder as many innocent civilians as possible,” said Tal Heinrich, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to “maps and documents found on the bodies of Hamas terrorists.” The documents and maps – retrieved in areas where attackers were killed by local defenders or Israeli soldiers – indicate that Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, had amassed significant intelligence about its targets and had developed detailed plans for assaulting them.

Rescue workers, soldiers and residents have collected a trove of such documents from the bodies of dead militants.

Israeli officials said they suspect that attackers who entered communities first tried to kill as many people as possible to limit the threat of a counter-attack, then took hostage those who were still alive.

One striking similarity among the plans: Attackers were told to herd hostages into kibbutz dining halls before taking them back to Gaza, something that occurred in the town of Be’eri, where dozens of residents held in its dining facility were eventually rescued by Israeli troops.

The attackers dispatched to Sa’ad, another kibbutz nearby, carried maps showing its security fence and other defences. Orders also noted the residents’ volunteer guard force was armed and could be reinforced by Israeli army units stationed nearby.

A map showed an aerial view of the kibbutz, identifying locations along the fence line where two teams of fighters were supposed to enter the kibbutz. The attack plan also warned militants that “guards are on regular shifts, and the kibbutz surveils the surrounding area via cameras.” The dining hall could be a place for “holding hostages,” the plan said, adding that the medical clinic could serve as “a first aid centre for friends and foes.” In Kfar Aza, across the road from Sa’ad, around 70 fighters from Hamas killed dozens of members of the 700-strong community. Officials said they found the mutilated bodies of women and children scattered across the kibbutz. Some residents, Israeli soldiers said, had been decapitated.

In Alumim, down the road from Sa’ad, the local protection force fought back against dozens of Hamas attackers, and with military help, killed around 20, preventing deaths on the scale witnessed in other nearby communities, said Tzvika Blumstein, a manager of the kibbutz.

But the Hamas attackers did reach the dorms of Thai and Nepalese labourers working for the kibbutz, who lived closest to the breached areas. There, they immediately killed some of the workers in their beds, according to Blumstein.

Others were taken to a different location, had their hands bound before being executed, said Blumstein. In total, the Hamas attackers killed 16 workers living on the kibbutz. “It was a massacre,” said Blumstein.

The Journal on Wednesday also reported on a 14-page document labeled “top secret” in Arabic and dated June 15, 2023 that describes a plan for infiltrating Mefalsim, a kibbutz near Gaza, and taking residents hostage.

Two teams of five and a commander would carry out the operation on “Hour S, Day Y,” it reads. Maps and aerial pictures of the town were contained in the document, which says there were 1,000 “civilians” guarded by a volunteer security force.

Members of the assault team were designated to open holes in a security fence, while others were to provide “artillery” fire, the document says. Once inside, the force would take prisoners and hold them at the dining hall as hostages “for negotiations,” the plan reads.

Video of the attack from a surveillance camera near Mefalsim’s front gate shows that attackers began gunning down residents as soon as they arrived.

The video was posted Saturday by South First Responders, a group of emergency personnel working in southern Israel, and verified by the Journal. In the footage, a man dressed in a white shirt running on the sidewalk grabs his right arm and drops onto the pavement, blood leaking from his head.

Within minutes, armed fighters can be seen emerging from a wooded area in ones and twos. Several run over to him and shoot him again. Residents who have abandoned their cars to hide in the bushes are attacked with grenades. One is pulled from the bushes and repeatedly shot and bludgeoned.

The Wall Street Journal