Amod Singh

GeoConfirmed conflictmap 7OCT23. Exactly three years ago, our volunteers were confronted with emerging information and the first footage coming out of Israel and the border with Gaza. Although it took Western media more than a week to grasp the full scale of what happened on 7 October, our volunteers quickly realised that something horrific was unfolding. While Israel initially provided very little communication about the attacks, Hamas propaganda was operating at full capacity. Many Western audiences encountered the conflict only when the IDF began bombing Gaza, without fully understanding why. This highlights a crucial lesson governments should draw from the conflict: do not allow your adversary to dominate the information environment. While accounts such as Syrian Girl, WarMonitor (Suspended by X in May 2024), along with many others, downplayed Hamas’s role and focused, sometimes through the spread of disinformation, on the IDF, it became increasingly clear to our volunteers what had happened: This was the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history. For this reason, we created a dedicated map of the 7 October attacks, compiling all the geolocated footage we could find: geoconfirmed.org/map/7oct Even today, media outlets often refer to it simply as a “Hamas attack,” but it was far larger than Hamas alone. We identified several militant groups, most of which are designated as terrorist organisations by the European Union. The groups involved included the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing; the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades; the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades; the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad; the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement; the Mujahideen Brigades; Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ); and others. GeoConfirmed’s footage made clear that these groups operated in their own designated areas. Journalists who attribute the attacks solely to Hamas do not tell the full story. Our team has analysed more than 100,000 videos and other pieces of footage from various conflicts, and some of the most disturbing material we have encountered was recorded during the 7 October attacks. Below is only a small fraction of that footage. More footage is available on our website. THIS FOOTAGE IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. However, we believe it is our responsibility to show the context in which Israel’s response took place. If you notice footage that has not yet been geolocated, or if you have seen footage that is not yet included on the map, please do not hesitate to let us know. This post is not, in any way, an endorsement of how the IDF responded to the attack. As lead volunteer Admin of the GeoConfirmed Project I would like to thank all the volunteers involved once again for their hard work and dedication. THANK YOU! More information: geoconfirmed.org/map/7oct (1/9)