Israel can’t ease up on Gaza

In late September 2024 I was invited to visit Israel as a guest of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, along with three Australian media figures – just a few days shy of the first anniversary of the 7 October 2023 Hamas massacre.

It wasn’t my first visit to Israel but my purpose, on this occasion, wasn’t tourism – it was to see, first-hand, what had happened on that terrible day and to understand its consequences beyond headlines and slogans.

During the tour we visited the site of the Nova Music Festival and the Kfar Aza kibbutz – both incredibly moving experiences in their own right which will stay with me for the rest of my life. The profound air of eerie calm and sense of unfathomable loss which now sits over both of these locations stands in stark contrast to the orgy of evil which took place at these sites in 2023.

But, surprisingly, it wasn’t those places which had the most lasting effect on me. That distinction belongs to a short three minute portion of a 47-minute compilation video which had been assembled by Israeli authorities. The video used a combination of home security camera footage, CCTV, phone video, dashcam and even Go Pros used by the terrorists themselves to document the atrocities carried out on October 7 by Hamas and other Palestinian militants – and the effect of putting it together so as to show continuous video of some of these atrocities was difficult to watch. It is unfiltered and direct and shows killings, abductions, and acts of brutality carried out deliberately, and typically accompanied by celebration and euphoria.

We were shown the video, under strictly controlled conditions, at the offices of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem and advised that the footage wasn’t being widely released out of respect to the families of the victims. I understood this, of course, but also felt that the Israeli position would be greatly enhanced if this footage was seen by a lot more people. In particular, I felt that a three minute section of the video, showing what happened to 46 year old Gil Taasa and his family, needed to be seen as widely as possible.

This was by no means the most graphic material in the video – but for me, it was the most upsetting – probably because it focuses of the trauma and reactions of two of Gils sons, boys around the same age as my own grandsons.

That evening, after watching it, I made a Zoom call to my wife and broke down while describing it to her – a response which has not dissipated even though 15 months have passed since I first watched it.

And apparently my reaction was not unique because, a few months ago, the Israeli government decided to release that specific footage to the public.

If you haven’t yet seen it, it’s not an easy watch and definitely not for everyone. It takes place in Netiv HaAsara, a community close to the Gaza border, and features CCTV footage from inside and outside the house. The video starts with Gil Taasa and two of his sons, Koren and Shay, being pursued by armed attackers. Gil is seen rushing the boys into an outdoor bomb shelter as militants move through the property.

A few moments later a grenade is thrown into the shelter and Gil is killed. Koren and Shay are then herded back inside the house and most of the video shows the heartbreaking dialogue between the two of them while the attackers remain in and around the home  – prompting the boys to express certainty, to each other, that they are about to die.

The entire video takes around 3 minutes but portrays events which take place over a little under an hour

The boys’ mother, Sabine Taasa, survived the attack – however the older brother, Or, was killed separately that same day at Zikim Beach.

Watching footage of Gil trying to protect his children inside his own home made the events of October 7 impossible to keep at a distance. What is shown is not a clash between armed forces. It is an extremist group entering civilian homes, pursuing families, and remaining on site after lethal violence has already occurred.

As such, whatever analytical or political framing people apply to this conflict, what happened to the Taasa family was not abstract. It was domestic. It was personal. It happened room by room as part of a process of methodical, premeditated, evil.

That reality has consequences.

The footage of Gil Taasa and his sons doesn’t require interpretation. It takes its place as one of over a thousand acts of evil which took place that same day and records what happened, where it happened, and who was targeted.

I left Israel with many impressions. But that footage remains the clearest.

Not because it was the most shocking – but because it showed, in an ordinary home, exactly what October 7 was and who Hamas really are.

Recently I’ve sense an ‘easing up’ by some of Israel’s supporters here and overseas. All but one of the hostages are home and Israel seems to be entering a stage of negotiation with regional players – so it’s time to take the foot off the pedal – right?

Wrong.

Hamas isn’t a political entity looking to press an advantage in pursuit of negotiated goals. Hamas is an ideologically driven Islamic terrorist organisation that has been consistently honest in its ambition to kill every last Jew in Israel (and beyond). October 7 was just a snapshot of what it could do on a much larger scale if ever given the chance.

An organisation that operates in this way – and then films and preserves evidence of it – cannot be treated as a conventional political actor. As long as Hamas exists in its current form, Israel faces an existential threat which will never be resolved.

For this reason, the idea of a self-governing Palestinian state in Gaza is simply not a viable option while Hamas still exists (and may not be even after). That conclusion isn’t ideological. It follows directly from what October 7 demonstrated.

It’s over when Hamas is completely eradicated. Not before.