[News] Israel admits to "immense" amount of "friendly fire" on 7 October

[Anti-Imperialist News]

electronicintifada.net
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israel-admits-immense-amount-friendly-fire-7-october>
Israel admits to "immense" amount of "friendly fire" on 7 October

Asa Winstanley <https://electronicintifada.net/people/asa-winstanley> Rights
and Accountability
<https://electronicintifada.net/blog/rights-and-accountability> 12 December
2023
------------------------------
[image: Destroyed cars in a field]

Drone footage released by the Israeli military last month shows the extent
of the destruction of the cars fleeing the Supernova rave on 7 October,
likely inflicted by Israeli drones and helicopters. (RT/Israeli military
<https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1721633558639550937>)

Israel’s army on Tuesday admitted that an “immense and complex quantity” of
what it calls “friendly fire” incidents took place on 7 October.

The key declaration was buried in the penultimate paragraph of an article
by Yoav Zitun <https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rkjqoobip>, the military
correspondent of Israeli outlet *Ynet*.

It is the first known official army admission that a significant number of
the hundreds of Israelis who died on 7 October were killed by Israel
itself, and not by Hamas or other Palestinian resistance factions.

An Israeli police source last month appeared to admit
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-helicopter-shot-civilians-7-october-rave-police-find>
that some of the Israelis at the Supernova rave taking place near Gaza that
day were hit by Israeli helicopters. A second police source later partially
walked back
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israel-police-slams-haaretz-claim-idf-helicopter-may-have-harmed-civilians-on-oct-7/>
the admission.

Citing new data released by the Israeli military, Zeitun wrote that:
“Casualties fell as a result of friendly fire on October 7, but the IDF
[Israeli military] believes that … it would not be morally sound to
investigate” them.

He reported that this was “due to the immense and complex quantity of them
that took place in the kibbutzim and southern Israeli communities.”

The *Ynet* article also reported that “at least” one fifth of the Israeli
army deaths in Gaza since the ground invasion began were also due to
“friendly fire” incidents.

Israel has in recent weeks faced increased internal pressure to investigate
the failings of 7 October.

On Monday in Tel Aviv, family members of those Israelis who died on 7
October established a new group
<https://www.israelhayom.co.il/news/local/article/14936727> calling
for an official
Israeli government investigation
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/alleging-government-mishandling-families-of-rave-massacre-victims-demand-answers/>
into the events of that day.

One of the speakers accused the government of a “cover-up.”

Israel does indeed appear to be covering up a lot of the evidence.

*The Jerusalem Post* reported recently
<https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-774511> that cars containing the
blood stains or ashes of Israelis who died on 7 October would be crushed
and – in what the paper said was a first – buried in a cemetery.

The paper provided a religious pretext for all this. Nonetheless, this is a
worrying development which amounts to a state-sanctioned coverup of what
could potentially be some of the most important forensic evidence from 7
October.

Since that day, there has been a steadily growing mountain of evidence
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/evidence-israel-killed-its-own-citizens-7-october/41156>
that many – if not most – Israelis killed that day were killed by Israel
itself.

This evidence has been reported in English almost entirely by independent
media, including The Electronic Intifada, *The Grayzone*, *The Cradle* and
*Mondoweiss*.

In one of the most recent revelations
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/we-blew-israeli-houses-7-october-says-israeli-colonel>,
an Israeli air force colonel admitted to a Hebrew podcast that they blew up
Israeli homes in the settlements but insisted they never did so “without
permission.”

Colonel Nof Erez also said that 7 October was a “mass Hannibal” event – a
reference to a controversial Israeli military doctrine.

Named after an ancient Carthaginian general who poisoned himself rather
than be captured alive, the Hannibal Directive
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hannibal-directive> allows Israeli
forces to take any means necessary to stop Israelis being captured alive –
even at the cost of killing the captives.
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