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    Israeli Apache helicopters killed own soldiers, civilians on 7 October: Report Archived Message

    Posted by sashimi on November 9, 2023, 7:09 pm

    9 Nov 2023

    Lede: New footage corroborates previous reports that say the Israeli military is
    responsible for many of the Israeli casualties during the first day of Operation
    Al-Aqsa Flood

    The Israeli military has released drone footage showing hundreds of scorched and
    damaged cars moved from the Nova music festival, providing further evidence that
    Israeli forces likely killed many of their own during the start of Operation
    Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October, RT reported on 6 November.

    The Nova festival took place near Kibbutz Beeri, only five kilometers away from
    the Gaza separation wall. It was one of the first targets hit by Palestinian
    resistance fighters when they broke out of Gaza, attacking military bases and
    settlements from 6:30 am.

    During the attack, the Palestinian fighters managed to take some 240 Israelis
    captive, including soldiers, settlers, and foreigners.

    The new drone footage shows an aerial view of hundreds of burned and destroyed
    cars taken from the site of the festival and placed in a dirt parking lot,
    creating a makeshift junkyard.

    Israeli rescue service Zaka claims they removed 260 bodies from the festival
    site. Israel claims they were massacred by Hamas fighters and civilian
    Palestinian looters who flooded across the open Gaza border fence in the hours
    after the Hamas attack.

    However, the footage appears to confirm previous reports in Israeli media that
    Israeli pilots flying Apache helicopters responded to the attacks by opening
    fire on both Hamas fighters and Israelis.

    A 15 October report in Yedioth Ahronoth explained that the first helicopters
    arrived in the Gaza Strip about an hour after the fighting began.

    The Hebrew language newspaper reports that the mission of the combat helicopters
    and the armed Zik drones was to stop the flow of Hamas fighters and looters that
    poured into Israeli territory through the gaps in the Gaza border fence.

    This was complicated by the difficulty the pilots had in distinguishing between
    Hamas fighters, Palestinian looters dressed in civilian clothing, and Israelis.

    The paper notes, "This deception worked for a considerable time until the
    Apaches had to skip all the restrictions. It was only around 9:00 a.m. that some
    of them began to spray the terrorists with the cannons on their own, without
    authorization from superiors."

    "The rate of fire against the thousands of terrorists was tremendous at first,
    and only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow down the attacks and
    carefully select the target," the paper added.

    Despite the confusion, twenty-eight Israeli combat helicopters fired all of the
    ammunition they were holding, including hundreds of 30 mm cannon shells and
    Hellfire missiles, during the day.

    After landing his Apache to reload ammunition at roughly 10:00 am, the commander
    of the 190 squadron instructed the other pilots "to shoot at everything they see
    in the fence area," separating Israel from Gaza.
    The same commander at one point attacked an Israeli military post with besieged
    soldiers inside to help the Israeli army recapture it from Hamas and opened fire
    near houses in a kibbutz in support of an officer from the Sinai division who
    had parachuted into battle Hamas militants.

    According to the air force, in the first four hours from the start of the
    fighting, helicopters and fighter jets attacked about 300 targets, most of them
    in Israeli territory.

    Israel's response to the Hamas attack and the problem of the hostages was
    alluded to in comments on 7 October from Israeli military spokesperson Rear
    Admiral Daniel Hagari. He described how the Israeli army was dealing with
    "hostage situations" using both air strikes and ground forces.

    Hagari said the military was "fighting in 22 locations," adding there was "no
    community in southern Israel where we do not have forces, in all the towns."

    "There are special forces there with senior commanders, and live firefights are
    going on there," he said.

    Israel's air force had carried out strikes in "several locations," Hagari said,
    adding there were "hundreds of deaths, including many terrorists."

    The main effort was to "eliminate" all "those who infiltrated Israel and are
    trying to return to the Gaza Strip," he said. "First of all, we will strike from
    the air, and then also with heavy ground means," he added.

    Responding to hostage situations with such overwhelming firepower meant that the
    safety of the hostages themselves was not a priority.
    -- Cont'd at https://new.thecradle.co/articles/israeli-apache-helicopters-killed-own-soldiers-civilians-on-7-october-report

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