Israeli report: Hamas was not planning to attack a music festival News of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The first police investigation into the Supernova Festival also found that Israeli forces were responsible for some of the deaths.

Israeli media reported, citing police and security sources, that Hamas fighters who attacked a music festival in Israel on October 7, killing hundreds, were not aware of the event in advance and decided to target it immediately.

According to a copy of the first Israeli police report on the attack, obtained by Israel’s Channel 12 this week, Palestinian fighters originally intended to attack nearby Kibbutz Re’im as well as other villages near the Gaza border. They found out about the music festival by drone and from the air while parachuting into Israel.

About 4,400 people were reportedly present at the event on Saturday when Hamas breached Israel’s heavily guarded wall — which includes an underground radar and sensor system — and attacked military sites and villages in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians. According to the Israeli authorities. .

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Saturday that “the growing assessment in the Israeli security establishment” based on police investigations and interrogations of arrested Hamas members is that the group was not planning to target the event.

While police found maps of the targeted locations on the bodies of dead Hamas members, none were present at the festival site. An additional finding supports the assessment, according to Haaretz, which is that Hamas fighters did not approach the festival from the direction of the border but from a nearby highway.

In addition, the event was originally scheduled to take place on Thursday and Friday, with Saturday only added to the program on Tuesday of that week.

The report also found that most festival-goers were able to leave the event by the time Hamas appeared and the carnage began.

“The vast majority of [people who were at the event] They were able to escape after the decision to disperse the event was taken four minutes after the missile attack,” according to what the Haaretz newspaper quoted a senior police source as saying.

The police investigation also found that an Israeli military helicopter opened fire on the attackers, but also wounded some people who were attending the festival. No further details were provided, according to Haaretz.

“The investigation into the incident revealed [Israeli military] The news report quoted an unnamed police official as saying that a combat helicopter that arrived at the scene from the Ramat David base opened fire on the terrorists and apparently wounded some revelers there.

The police report also revised the death toll from the attack to 364, including 17 police officers, up from 270. The number of kidnapped festival-goers was estimated at 40.

In response to the Hamas attacks, Israel launched a ground and air attack on the Gaza Strip that killed more than 12,000 Palestinians, including 5,000 children, according to Palestinian health authorities. Much of the Gaza Strip lies in ruins, and Israel’s comprehensive blockade of the Strip has left residents unable to obtain sufficient food, water, fuel and medical supplies, all of which are now at extremely low levels.