The Israeli military, in recently released documents, said that Hamas used detailed maps and carried with them Arabic-to-Hebrew translation guides during their October 7 attack against Israel, The Guardian reported on Sunday. The military reached the conclusion after delving into various phone records, documents, and notebooks that they seized from Hamas militants during the war, the report said. The translation guides accessed by the Israeli military consisted of phrases such as "put your hands up and spread your legs", "lay down", "take your clothes off", "take your pants off", "I will kill you" and “we will kill the hostages”.
Hamas terrorists were also found with a checklist that guided them about hostage-taking, the report added. The instructions included directions to eliminate individuals who "cause trouble" or attempt to escape. According to the country's military help was rendered to the militant group by spies inside Israel.
Revelations of the guides maintained by Hamas came amid reports that the militant group raped and mutilated women's bodies during the war. In a recent statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the United Nations for disregarding the suffering of Israeli victims. "I say to the women’s rights organisations, to the human rights organisations, you've heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation — where the hell are you?" Netanyahu questioned.
President of the United States Joe Biden also called the attacks by Hamas on women as “appalling.” “Reports of women raped — repeatedly raped — and their bodies being mutilated while still alive — of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them… It is appalling.”
{{/usCountry}}President of the United States Joe Biden also called the attacks by Hamas on women as “appalling.” “Reports of women raped — repeatedly raped — and their bodies being mutilated while still alive — of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them… It is appalling.”
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, in a recent report, The New York Times said that Israeli officials had seen a 40-page battle plan by Hamas a year before the October 7 attack but however chose to dismiss it claiming it was “too difficult” to be carried out.
The report indicated that on October 7, Hamas executed a plan involving a series of rocket and drone attacks on Israel. It said that the group would also deploy security cameras and automated machine guns along the Israel-Gaza border during the attack—all of which took place following the report.
After the October 7 attack, Hamas brought more than 200 hostages to Gaza. During the recent seven-day truce between Israel and Hamas, the terror group released many among them, including foreign nationals.
(With inputs from AFP)