There was nothing spontaneous nor accidental in the massacre that transpired a week ago through the surprise attack waged from the air, sea, and ground by hordes of Hamas militants on Israel.
Instead, documents obtained from attacked communities showed coordinated assaults that fly in the face of recent claims by Hamas that it did not kill children, according to the report. A video released by Hamas on Friday showed armed terrorists holding and feeding Israeli children taken hostage, including babies.
Israelis on 7 October were wrapping up the seven-day-long Jewish festival of Sukkot when sirens blared across the country just before dawn, and citizens soon experienced one of the most brutal terror attacks to rival the 9/11 Twin Towers bloodbath in 2001.
Documents obtained by American network NBC News showed that the terrorist organization Hamas had drafted detailed plans to target elementary schools and a youth center in the Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Sa'ad and to "kill as many people as possible," seize hostages and quickly move them into the Gaza Strip.
NBC News said documents obtained from bodies of terrorists by Israeli first responders detailed attack plans labeled "top secret" in Arabic that appeared to be orders for two highly trained assault units to surround and infiltrate villages and target places where civilians, including children, gathered.
Detailed maps showed that Hamas intended to kill or take hostage civilians and school children, according to NBC News.
One page labeled "Top Secret" outlined a plan of attack for Kfar Sa'ad, saying "Combat unit 1" is directed to "contain the new Da'at school," while "Combat unit 2" is to "collect hostages, search the Bnei Akiva youth center," and "search the old Da'at school."
The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, meanwhile, claimed to have killed a Hamas commander who had led one of the murderous attacks on the southern Israel communities.
The IDF said Ali Qadhi, a company commander in the so-called Nukhba unit, was killed in a drone strike following intelligence efforts by the Shin Bet security agency and Military Intelligence Directorate.
The security agency said Qadhi was arrested by Israel in 2005 over the kidnapping and murder of Israeli civilians and had been released to the Gaza Strip as part of the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.
'Kill as many as possible'
Another page from the Hamas papers labeled "Top Secret Maneuver" described a plan for a terror unit to secure the east side of Kfar Sa'ad while a second team controlled the west. It said, "kill as many as possible" and "capture hostages." Other orders included surrounding a dining hall and holding hostages in it.
The detailed plan to attack Kfar Sa'ad was part of a trove of documents that Israeli officials are analyzing, the news organization quoted a source in the Israeli army and another in the government.
Surveillance video showed Hamas terrorists entering a kibbutz using tactics like those in the documents obtained by NBC News.
Israeli officials said most documents showed that Hamas had systematically gathered intelligence on each kibbutz bordering Gaza and created specific attack plans.
"The dental office, the supermarket, the dining hall," an Israel Defense Forces source told NBC News. "The level of specificity would cause anyone in the intelligence field's jaw to drop."
NBC News said the Hamas documents, footage of the massacre's aftermath, and interviews with eyewitnesses and first responders told a harrowing story.
"I saw murdered babies. I saw murdered children. I saw mothers and children murdered together," NBC News quoted Yossi Landau, a commander of ZAKA, an Israeli first responder organization.
The Hamas maps obtained by NBC News showed blue circles around Kfar Sa'ad and three other villages bordering Gaza: Kfar Aza, Nahal Oz and Alumim.
Two Hamas units were to approach Kfar Sa'ad separately from two different assembly points based on the documents. They also described the numbers and types of vehicles to be used by each group.
One IDF official was astounded by the degree of planning that went into ensuring maximum civilian casualties, according to the report.
"I've never seen this kind of detailed planning" for a mass terrorist attack, he said.
WITH AFP