When the Walls Fell Silent: The Truth Silenced Behind October Seventh

Yemenat

Brain Carlson: An American visual artist and a devoted human rights activist.

Two years ago tomorrow, approximately 2,500 armed Hamas fighters broke through Israel’s state-of-the-art security fences, attacked those they encountered, and abducted 250 Israelis, taking them as hostages back to Gaza. During the attack and the subsequent Israeli response, approximately 1,200 Israelis and 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed.

Of the 1,200 Israelis, more than 400 were IDF soldiers, with estimates around 450. These soldiers belonged to units tasked for decades with suppressing and terrorizing Palestinians. This assessment comes from the testimonies of former IDF soldiers who have chosen to speak openly about the nature and specifics of their assignments in Gaza. Anyone in doubt should search for “Breaking the Silence” and read or listen to the testimonies of these Israeli veterans.

Israeli intelligence agencies had the full plans for the October 7 attack in detail for a year prior to the invasion. They knew how it would happen, where the fences would be breached, the size and type of forces involved, the locations, and the objectives. Despite having this information, the leadership chose not to act. In fact, in the weeks immediately prior to the attack, they reduced forces in the area, weakening Israel’s potential defenses. These forces were redeployed to the West Bank for reasons that have never been explained.

Spotters along the fence—a barrier equipped with cameras, sensors, and automated machine gun posts that Israel claimed even a pigeon could not cross undetected—warned their superiors of unusual movements on the Gaza side. Training exercises were observed. Gaza was arguably the most surveilled urban area in the world, yet these warnings were ignored, or more precisely, observed but left unacted upon. Egypt also warned Israel that a large armed attack was imminent. Israel’s response was inaction.

As bulldozers moved toward the fence and motorcycles and light trucks raced toward the breaches, the air force could have been deployed immediately. Israel is a small country; jets and helicopters could have arrived in fifteen minutes or even five if ordered. Hamas would not have had a chance to carry out their attack. Instead, several hours passed before the IDF mounted any significant response. During these four to six hours, many of the 250 abductions occurred.

Regarding the 400 to 450 Israeli soldiers killed by Hamas, while many died fighting, at least one group stationed at a military base was killed by the IDF. The base commander called in an airstrike on his own soldiers, following the Hannibal Directive, which dictates that soldiers should be killed rather than risk being taken hostage. The exact number of soldiers at that base is unknown, but it was surely more than a few.

The world has been told, and continues to be told, that Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis that day. This narrative ignores key facts about who was killed, how the attack unfolded, and the IDF’s actions. Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Defense Minister at the time, confirmed that the IDF fired on their own soldiers and civilians indiscriminately. When twenty-three US-built Apache attack helicopters arrived at the festival, they fired on those below without knowing who were Hamas fighters and who were concertgoers. Several pilots later testified to this. The chaos made identification impossible, and the orders were to fire all available ammunition, return to base, reload, and repeat. Each helicopter carries a substantial load of bullets and Hellfire missiles, and twenty-three helicopters repeated this twice. Scores of Israelis were killed by Israeli helicopters. At least seventy vehicles fleeing toward Gaza were destroyed from the air, undoubtedly carrying Israeli hostages under Hamas control. The destruction could not have been caused by the small arms Hamas possessed; it bore the unmistakable signature of US-made Hellfire missiles. Israel killed its own knowingly and in accordance with the Hannibal Directive. If each vehicle carried only one hostage, this means seventy of the 1,200 Israeli deaths that day were caused intentionally by the IDF.

These facts were not widely reported. When they were revealed, they were repressed, highlighting the complicity of Western media in obscuring the truth. Had the truth been published widely, uncritical support for Israel’s brutal, indiscriminate response would have been significantly reduced. Imagine reading on October 8 that 2,500 Hamas fighters had entered Israel according to a plan Israel had known about for a year, that Israel had weakened its defenses, ignored all warnings, and waited six hours before responding, and then ordered the Hannibal Directive, resulting in hundreds of Israeli deaths at the hands of their own military, including soldiers. Would you have displayed “I STAND WITH ISRAEL” signs?

Truth was suppressed. Lies replaced it—huge, sensational lies designed to manipulate emotions: beheaded babies, pregnant women assaulted and killed, infants shoved into ovens, children burned and shot, families incinerated in their cars. These lies were spread by perpetrators, soldiers, first responders, leaders, and echoed by global leaders including President Biden, amplified by mainstream media. Had the public known that these claims were false, the global response would have been very different.

I anticipate that some will accuse me of antisemitism, a tired charge used to defend criminal actions, and others may label me pro-Hamas. I have never claimed to support violence, and I do not approve of it. I have written critically about Israeli oppression of Palestinians for years. My point is that oppressed and repressed people often resist when violations persist. Some will find arms if prevented from having them, build them if necessary, or resort to stones. Every Hamas fighter who attacked on October 7 was born and raised under the occupation and brutal apartheid in historic Palestine. They attacked only within what was stolen from them. The settlements they targeted were built on land taken from Palestinians. These are facts rarely reported in mainstream Western media.

I do not know if this post will be removed or further suppressed, but all of these claims have been openly stated by reputable journalists and scholars such as Max Blumenthal, Chris Hedges, Norman Finkelstein, and Noam Chomsky. Shadow banning me would constitute a violation of freedom of speech and political censorship.

May the full truth about October 7 be told. May the genocide end along with the illegal occupation and apartheid. May all perpetrators be brought to the highest human courts and punished for their crimes, regardless of nationality or position. May Palestine be free, governed by Palestinians for Palestinians, and rebuilt according to their choice, with reparations funded by nations complicit in its destruction.