Members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, broke down in tears and were visibly disturbed upon viewing a 43-minute film of raw footage from the Palestinian Hamas terror attack against Israel on October 7.

The film was first shown to journalists, including Breitbart News, last Monday, Oct. 23., at the Glilot military base near Tel Aviv. On that occasion, Breitbart News reported:

On Monday, the IDF invited journalists onto a military base to view 43 minutes of raw footage of the attack by the Palestinian Hamas terrorist group on October 17 — an attack that claimed an estimated 1,200 lives and saw over 4,000 [now 5,400] people wounded, and more than 200 taken prisoner.

The footage was compiled from both victims and perpetrators, from GoPro cameras, dashboard cameras, social media, surveillance cameras, and even audio recording apps on mobile phones. It is just a small part of what the IDF still possesses.

…

Throughout the screening, there were gasps, and cries in the audience. I heard some journalists whisper: “Make it stop.”

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IDF Spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said that the military had hesitated before sharing the footage. But he said the IDF ultimately decided to do so because “we want to understand, ourselves, what we are fighting for.” He spoke about the duty to create a “collective memory,” noting that Israel was doing so even while it was still fighting the enemy that had attacked it.

The impact of the first screening was such that the IDF was asked to hold additional screenings for foreign journalists, then for local journalists, and finally for members of the Knesset.

The footage is considered too disturbing to share in its entirety with the public, though small portions — such as a phone call by a terrorist to his parents — have been published.

Editor’s Note:  This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel.  The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.