First-hand testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists will be collected by the USC Shoah Foundation.
The move confirms the attack that saw the mass rape, torture, and slaughter of Israeli civilians is being considered part of Holocaust lineage of events.
USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education, formerly Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides.
The Times of Israel reports the foundation, founded by Steven Spielberg, currently holds 56,000 testimonies from 65 countries where genocidal attacks have taken place.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Horror of the Hamas Terror Attack on Civilians at Kibbutz Be’eri in Israel
Over 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed and more than 224 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza in the brutal Hamas onslaught with stories still emerging of the horrific crime against humanity that took place, as Breitbart News reported.
Teams working for the foundation have reportedly already recorded the first testimonies in Israel.
One released hostage, Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, said Tuesday she “went through hell” during her abduction by rampaging Hamas terrorists, being moved though a “spiderweb” of muddy tunnels before starting more than two weeks as a captive in Gaza.
Lifshitz was a resident of Nir Oz kibbutz, one of the Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip which Hamas militants invaded on October 7.
Yocheved Lifshitz speaks to the media outside Ichilov Hospital after she was released by Hamas last night, on October 24, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Some 180 of the kibbutz’s 400 residents were killed or abducted in the terror raid.
Lifshitz is one of only four hostages to be released — and the first to speak publicly — of the more than 220 Israeli and foreign nationals believed held by Hamas.
“I went through hell, I didn’t think or know I’d get to this situation. They went on a rampage in our kibbutz, kidnapped me, lay me over a motorcycle… and sped off with me through the ploughed fields,” she said a day after her release.
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.
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