Helicopter Footage Sparks Debate Over Israeli Friendly Fire Incidents
Disturbing footage from the early days of the Israel-Hamas war has become a topic of controversy over a month later, as one major Israeli newspaper strongly suggests it shows helicopter footage of Israeli forces firing indiscriminately on civilians "approximately an hour after the onset of the [Hamas] terror attack" on Oct. 7, while media fact checkers - including those dropping 'community notes' on X, insist the clip does not show the IDF firing on concertgoers - and that Israeli forces instead "mainly fired within Kibbutzim at the directive of IDF soldiers on the ground, precisely, as stated in the source, that they couldn't differentiate."
YNet's military correspondent Yoav Zitun described how the first helicopters over the scene were reliant on limited numbers of troops and security personnel on the ground, who were calling in targets to command centers utilizing cell phones and WhatsApp:
"As the pilots struggled to differentiate between terrorists and civilians, the decision was made to prioritize the immediate halt of the influx of Hamas terrorists and the potentially dangerous Gaza mobs breaching the border."
But what's clear from the now widely viewed on-the-ground Oct.7 videos which emerged almost in real time, masses of Israeli concert-goers were running, hiding, and seeking shelter in many directions. Others were whisked away on Hamas motorcycles as kidnappings ensued. But according to the report, Israeli pilots - unable to differentiate targets, unleashed heavy machine gun fire on people below, which may have included concert-goers.
In one scene from the harrowing footage - the date of which is also in dispute, a small car is seen speeding through an open field before the hovering gunship scored a direct hit on it. There's no way to know just from the footage whether it was full of Israeli civilians or Hamas fighters, or what level of confidence IDF ground sources had prior to the takedown (note: for clearer, fuller footage, go here):
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/does-helicopter-footage-show-large-scale-israeli-friendly-fire-incidents
https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/b111niukzt