DUBAI – An investigation carried out by Israeli police has concluded that Hamas, involved in the October 7 attack, had no prior knowledge of the Nova music festival held near the border of Gaza, the Israeli media said.
According to a report by Haaretz on Saturday, Hamas had no prior knowledge of the rave, which took place next to Kibbutz Re’im, and targeted the gathering spontaneously.
The incident reportedly left 364 people dead and was one of the events that was used by Israel to justify the ongoing war against Hamas which has so far claimed the lives of over 12,000 people, the Middle East Monitor said.
Haaretz noted that “The assessment is based on interrogations and the police’s investigation of the incident” among other things, which reveal that Hamas intended to infiltrate Re’im and other kibbutzim near the Gaza border.
The police probe also revealed that an Israeli military helicopter arrived at the scene and opened fire in which some festival participants were killed.
“The event was attended by some 4,400 people, the large majority of whom managed to flee following the decision to disperse the event made four minutes after the rocket attack,” a senior police source said.
The pilots also admitted that they shot at the cars without knowing which were Hamas and which were civilians, Haaretz said.
A separate report by Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 said that investigators could not find maps on the bodies of dead Hamas fighters linked to the outdoor event, whereas in the cases of other attacks that day, they carried maps specifying their targets.
Hamas reportedly only realized a major event was happening in the area after the police began dispersing partygoers because of the wider operation and subsequently headed toward it.
The development comes as Israel revised the official death toll of the October 7 attacks, lowering the figure to about 1,200 people, compared to the 1,400 originally cited.
Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev was challenged on the Mehdi Hasan Show regarding the false claims.
“We understood that we’d overestimated, we made a mistake. There were actually bodies that were so badly burnt we thought they were ours. Apparently, they were Hamas members,” he said.
Israel has so far failed to explain how Hamas could have carried out a large scale attack that led to hundreds of people burned beyond recognition, in addition to parked vehicles, as they were armed with just light weapons.
In an interview with a radio program on state broadcaster Kan, one Israeli witness, Yasmin Porat said the Israeli forces opened fire. “They eliminated everyone, including the hostages. There was very, very heavy crossfire and even tank shelling,” Porat said.