The horror of 7 October on film

Nov 7, 2024 by Jill

by Adam LeBor, The Critic:

The killers’ headset footage, CCTV, interviews with survivors and heart-rending last messages.

Early in the morning of 7 October 2023, as Hamas terrorists started to slaughter hundreds of young people at the Nova dance festival, three escaped by car. They drove to the entrance of nearby Kibbutz Be’eri, seeking sanctuary. But they arrived at the same time as the first Hamas gunmen. CCTV footage shows what happened next.

A terrorist casually sprays the car with bullets. The vehicle slows, veers leftward and stops, its passengers now dead. Another gunman shoots into a house, the groans of his victim audible.

In One Day in October Dan Reed, an award-winning director, cuts between the killers’ own headset footage, the kibbutz’s CCTV system which captured so much of the slaughter, interviews with survivors, and the heart-rending last messages of those about to die to their loved ones.

Many tried to protect themselves and their families in their bomb shelters — but they were designed to protect from explosive impact and had no locks. One survivor recounted how he first watched his wife die, then Carmel, his 15-year-old son, after both were shot. Carmel, slowly bleeding out, asked if he could be buried with his surfboard. Some time later, he was.

The 7 October massacre was the worst mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. More than 1,200 people were killed and 254 taken hostage, of whom almost 100 are still in captivity. Kibbutz Be’eri, whose residents had once taken sick Gazans from the nearby border to Israeli hospitals for treatment, was one of the worst hit. One hundred and two people were killed, whilst 32 were taken hostage.

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