The Hamas-led attack on Southern Israel on 7 October 2023 was one of the largest terror attacks in history, resulting in 1,182 fatalities and over 4,000 wounded. A total of 251 hostages were taken - 210 were alive and 41 were dead bodies.[1] It was the largest single massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust and the deadliest per capita terrorist attack, with just over 1 in every 10,000 Israelis killed and the third overall deadliest terrorist attack in the world to date.[2]

The attack resulted in over 4,000 wounded individuals treated at hospitals, with gunshot wounds, grenade injuries, and burns. Trauma centres like Soroka and Barzilai Medical Centres faced overwhelming numbers of severe cases, treating patients whilst under ongoing rocket fire. The mental health repercussions since 7 October, including PTSD and suicides, have led experts to classify the event as a mass trauma affecting Israeli society.

Over 90% of those killed or taken hostage were Israeli citizens, including Jewish Israelis, Arab Israelis, and Bedouins. Many of the Israelis that were killed were also dual nationals. Citizens from 44 nations around the world were killed and taken hostage. The largest group of foreign victims were from Thailand, many of them agricultural workers in the Kibbutzim and Moshavim (small communal and agricultural villages). Seventeen British nationals were killed and 2 were taken hostage. One of these British hostages was killed in captivity, and the other was released after 471 days in captivity.

A total of 863 civilians were killed on 7 October, accounting for 73% of the dead. [3] The remaining 27% of fatalities were those serving in active duty – either in the military or as first responders.[4] Women and children account for 27% of those killed during the attacks and 49% of hostages taken alive – 316 and 102 respectively. The youngest victim of 7 October was just 14 hours old – her mother had been shot whilst driving to the hospital to give birth and a bullet hit the baby girl’s leg whilst in utero. The oldest victim was a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor, who was killed at Kibbutz Holit.

The victims were killed through shootings, asphyxiation and burning, grenade explosions, RGP and missile attacks. Many victims were subjected to mutilation, sexual violence, and other forms of deliberate brutality before or after death. Forensic teams faced immense challenges in identifying remains due to the extent of desecration to bodies, with some victims identified months later through fragments like teeth.

Hamas orchestrated and led the attack, with 3,800 of its elite Nukhba forces and members of Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades invading Southern Israel. They were supported by 2,200 individuals from other armed groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and civilians from Gaza. A further 1,000 individuals stayed in Gaza to operate rocket launchers and provide tactical support.

The exact date of when Hamas began planning the attack is not known, but the concept is believed to have taken shape before 2014, with official preparations beginning from 2021.[5] In 2018, Hamas spearheaded the creation of the "Joint Room for Palestinian Resistance Factions," an alliance designed to coordinate operations against Israel. The alliance included the following groups, each of which participated in the attack on 7 October:

Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas),
Al-Quds Brigades (Palestinian Islamic Jihad),
Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine),
Jihad Jibril Brigades (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command),
National Resistance Brigades (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine),
Nasser Saleh al-Din Battalions (Popular Resistance Committees),
Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (ex-Fatah),
Holy Warriors’ Battalions (Mujahedeen), and
Al-Ansar Brigades (Al-Ansar Movement).

Hamas maintained strict secrecy regarding the 7 October attack, with the operation details withheld from most of its fighters until hours before its execution. Only a small group of senior leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and Mohammed Deif, the head of Qassam Brigades, were fully aware of the plan. Lower-ranking commanders and participants were informed of their roles just days, or even hours, in advance.

The preparation for the attack involved extensive training, including drills of storming mock Israeli communities, breaching defences, and rehearsing hostage taking. There was advanced intelligence gathering, and detailed mapping of the locations they would attack.

When the militants crossed the border, they came armed with advanced RPGs, drones, small arms, and explosives, including thermobaric weapons. The sheer volume of arms was designed to cause maximum destruction. Weapons such as the strip-and-frame charge explosive were specifically created for the attack. The explosive frame was designed to breach the border and to be affixed to home saferoom doors in Israeli border communities, to break in.[6]

The perpetrators documented their actions on the day, through GoPro body cameras and mobile phones. They livestreamed and recorded their actions, uploading them to social media sites like Telegram.

Many attackers used GoPro body cameras, mobile phones, and even the phones of their victims to livestream their actions. Videos and images were uploaded in real-time by Hamas and other groups to platforms like Telegram and sometimes directly to victims’ accounts. This footage showcased graphic killings, abductions, and desecration of bodies, often accompanied by celebratory captions. Footage depicted hostages being mistreated, corpses desecrated, and victims in their final moments.

The Hamas-led attack began with an unprecedented barrage of rockets, aimed at southern Israel and the larger metropolises across the country. This was followed by 119 breaches in the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel over the course of the attack, and simultaneous incursions by air and sea.

The attack began at 06:29 on the Jewish Sabbath and festival of Simchat Torah, with a massive rocket barrage sent by Hamas and allied groups. A total of 3,873 rockets were fired into Israel on 7 October, followed by another 987 on 8 and 9 October.[7] This triggered alerts across 498 communities and affected 75% of Israel's population. The number of rockets was unprecedented and stopped residents from leaving the envelope, ensuring that the maximum number of civilians remained in the area when the border was breached.

A coordinated attack was simultaneously underway at the border. The attackers used drones, snipers, and explosives to disable surveillance and defensive systems. By the end of the day, the border had been breached at 119 points, enabling the entry of thousands of militants into Israel. The attack also included air and sea breaches, with Hamas using reconnaissance paragliders to cross the border under the cover of rocket fire and deploying naval commandos in dinghies and fast boats to infiltrate Israel's coastal defences near Zikim Beach.

Hamas-led forces attacked 32 civilian communities - Kibbutzim and Moshavim - in Israel's Gaza Envelope killing 416 in a matter of hours. Of the 250 total hostages taken during the attack, 183 were from these villages.

Once the border had been penetrated, the attacking forces breached community defences and caused widespread destruction. Kibbutzim such as Be’eri, Kfar Aza, and Nir Oz were the worst affected. Be’eri and Kfar Aza experienced the highest death tolls, with 99 and 62 civilians killed respectively.[8] Nir Oz saw the most kidnappings, with 75 people taken hostage, alongside 7 abducted bodies. The communities were attacked by Hamas, other armed groups, and Gazan civilians. They destroyed homes, committed atrocities, systematically looted, and set fire to properties. Fierce battles ensued at some locations, with some areas only reclaimed by Israeli forces on the evening of 7 October and others remained contested for days. By 11 October, 89% of the communities in the Gaza envelope had been evacuated, displacing tens of thousands of people.

Hamas-led forces also launched coordinated attacks on three cities in the western Negev: Sderot, Ofakim, and Netivot, which resulted in 88 fatalities.

Sderot suffered the most significant casualties and destruction. Ofakim also faced heavy losses, and was the deepest penetration point from Gaza, 13.5 miles eastwards into Israel. The ground infiltration into Netivot was thwarted, but people were killed by rocket fire. The attacks on these cities reflected a similar brutality seen in the assaults on rural communities, including heavy civilian casualties and property damage. The scale of Hamas’ objectives is underscored by their unsuccessful plans to target larger cities like Ashkelon and Tel Aviv.

The Nova Music Festival, held near Kibbutz Re’im, became the deadliest site of the attacks, with over 370 people killed, most of them young attendees under 30.

The death toll made the attack on the festival “the deadliest concert attack in history.”[9] At the festival site those who stayed were gunned down in their hiding places under the stage, behind the bar, in mobile toilets and waste containers. About 50 to 60% did not die at the festival site itself but were killed as they fled the attack. Many were ambushed in their cars with automatic weapons fire and RPGs or were killed by grenades thrown into roadside rocket shelters where they had sought safety along the highway. Others were shot in fields, wooded areas, or stretches of desert as they fled the party site on foot.

Hamas operatives strategically seized key junctions along Route 232, the main highway in the Gaza envelope. The highway killings took place at more than 30 separate locations, primarily at three major road junctions and in roadside rocket shelters along Route 232.

The highway was the attempted escape route for many fleeing attacks on the Kibbutzim, Moshavim, and two music festivals in the area – Nova and Pysduck. The attackers set up ambush positions at major junctions, turning the area into a confined killing zone. At the junctions and along the roadside, terrorists indiscriminately fired on vehicles and killed occupants as they attempted to pass. They used automatic weapons and grenades to target every car.

Hamas gunmen and other armed groups also launched a series of coordinated attacks on Israeli military bases and outposts in the Gaza envelope. Over 150 soldiers were killed, and dozens were taken hostage. The attack on Nahal Oz Base accounted for a third of these casualties with 50 soldiers killed, including 15 unarmed female field observers, and 10 more taken hostage.

The simultaneous assaults on the bases not only inflicted heavy losses on the IDF but also exacerbated the devastation in the surrounding civilian areas. Bases that were supposed to act as the first line of defence for kibbutzim, moshavim, and cities were rendered ineffective. This allowed the attackers to continue their rampage across the region with minimal resistance. Reinforcements were delayed, and communication networks were disrupted by deliberate sabotage, further compounding the chaos of the day. Civilians and non-combat personnel seeking refuge were caught in the crossfire. Rescue operations faced significant challenges due to the sheer scale of the assaults.

The atrocities committed by Hamas and allied groups on 7 October, marked a day of unprecedented violence. There are numerous accounts of deliberate killings, hostage abuse, sexual violence, and desecration of both the living and the dead.

Civilians were targeted with calculated and unreserved precision. Victims, spanning all ages from infants to the elderly, were often shot at point-blank range, burned alive, or killed by grenades. The systematic destruction included the deliberate annihilation of entire families in kibbutzim. Elsewhere, children were orphaned as their parents were killed in front of them as they hid.

The attackers abducted 251 hostages, including civilians, soldiers, and corpses from various locations. Hostages endured abuse during this process including binding and beatings. Children as young as 9 months and elderly people were forcibly removed from their families.

Women and girls were particularly vulnerable during the attacks. Reports detailed gang rapes, sexual mutilation, and assaults on both living and deceased victims. There was a pattern across various locations attacked on 7 October of “fully naked or partially naked bodies from the waist down [that] were recovered – mostly women – with hands tied and shot multiple times, often in the head.”[10] This was particularly prevalent at the Nova Festival.

The attackers looted homes, destroyed property, and set buildings ablaze, compounding the suffering of survivors. Kibbutzim and neighborhoods were left in ruins, with fires burning for days. Forensic evidence highlighted widespread use of incendiary weapons and flame accelerants, leaving many homes unrecognisable and further hindering the identification of the dead.

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[1] The 41 dead bodies are counted within the 1,182 deaths.

[2] The Centre for Strategic and International Studies quantified this by looking at attacks from 1970 to 2021 chosen from the Global Terrorism Database (START Maryland University) and supplemented with the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) database for events from 2021 to 2023.

[3] 1,182 total (inclusive of dead bodies taken hostage).

[4] See the report’s methodology for a breakdown of classifications of First Responders, and of military fatalities.

[5] Jumada Al-Akhirah, “The ‘Flood’... It Started with 70 of the ‘Elite of the Elite’ and 5 Officials Who Planned It (Translated from Arabic)” (Asharq Al-Awsat, January 9, 2024), https://shorturl.at/tH2Bj.

[6] 7 October Parliamentary Commission delegation with Lord Roberts, Meeting and Interview with LTC Idan Sharon-Kettler briefing at Tzfirin Base, Israel, August 29, 2024.

[7] Figures provided by the IDF Spokesperson Department.

[8] The total number of civilians killed at Be’eri was 103. 4 of these were attendees at the Nova Music Festival. As per the methodology of this report, they have been counted as victims of the Nova Music Festival.

[9] David Browne, Nancy Dillon, and Kory Grow, “They Wanted to Dance in Peace. And They Got Slaughtered,” (Rolling Stone Magazine, October 15, 2023), https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/hamas-israel-nova-music-festival-massacre-1234854306/.

[10] Pramila Patten, “Mission report: Official visit of the Office of the SRSG-SVC to Israel and the occupied West Bank 29 January – 14 February 2024,” (Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, March 4, 2024), https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/report/mission-report-official-visit-of-the-office-of-the-srsg-svc-to-israel-and-the-occupied-west-bank-29-january-14-february-2024/20240304-Israel-oWB-CRSV-report.pdf, Page 4.