Hamas terrorists received top-level orders to commit sickening acts during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, aimed at creating ‘shocking scenes’ including instructions to behead victims and cut off their limbs.

The chilling directives have come to light in a series of documents released for the first time by the Israeli Foreign Ministry ahead of the two-year anniversary of the massacre.  

The merciless violence that day claimed 1,200 lives, mainly civilians, and saw 250 others taken hostage in the single-worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

In an operation order for the massacre, issued by the headquarters of the military wing of Hamas – the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade – thousands of militants are instructed to ‘expel the settlers using their vehicles’.

‘Priority is children and women. Detain between 17–50 prisoners. Seize mobile phones and any carried documents,’ an order for the attack, code-named ‘Toofan Al-Aqsa’, read.

More instructions refer to the devastating attack on Israel’s kibbutzim near the Gaza Strip, where entire communities were slaughtered and homes were ransacked and burnt to ashes.

‘Attack Kibbutz [Mefalsim] with the aim of inflicting the maximum possible human losses, taking hostages, and establishing positions inside until further orders are issued,’ a mission description said. 

In sinister handwritten notes, commanders are instructed to ensure attackers produce ‘shocking scenes’. 

Noa Argamani was taken into Gaza from the Nova Music Festival on October 7

A gunman, brandishing his AK-47 assault rifle – ordered pair of Israelis driving slowly along the road to stop their car

Hamas gunman is seen taking a civilian hostage after shooting many others in cold blood

‘[The footage] will be used as propaganda: broadcast and circulated everywhere, so that they will be seen by our people. The goal is to incite the masses to go out and support us. In parallel, the incursion forces should instil terror and fear in the enemy,’ a description outlining the massacre’s ‘operational principles’ read.

‘Fighters must be urged to inflict as many casualties as possible in every house beheading, shooting heads of families, running down soldiers with vehicles, destroying tanks, cutting off limbs, etc,’ it continued.

The directives called on terrorists to slaughter entire Israeli communities at the kibbutzim on the Gaza periphery, including women, children and the elderly.

‘The plan calls for preparing spectacular acts that will wipe out whole neighbourhoods and kibbutzim,’ an instruction said.

‘One example given is to pour gasoline or diesel from a special tanker, burn the site and broadcast the images. Breaching openings in the barrier (gates).’

Militants also carried guides to hostage-taking and Arabic-to-Hebrew phrasebooks, one of which included the line ‘put your hands up and spread your legs’. 

Other directives instruct terrorists to take and publish photos ‘that explode emotions’ and lead to the ‘motivation of our people in the West Bank and also inside (Israel) and Jerusalem’. 

They should ‘shoot soldiers in the head at point blank range’, as well as ‘slaughter some of them with a knife’ while they are in a ‘kneeling position with their hands extended above their heads’.

Terrorists are instructed to produce ‘scary images’ for maximum impact, such as footage showing ‘a number of car bombs that will explode in a building or place, causing terrifying destruction, and a heart-warming sound, and a burning fire’.

Bodycam video shows early moments of Hamas massacre in Israel 

Adel Rubin (L), who lost both her parents during the 2023 October 7 attacks, reacts as she visits a house that was left heavily-damaged after the event in Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel on October 6, 2025, a day before the second anniversary of the attacks

An Israeli Israeli flag is left in house that was destroyed in a battle between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants on Saturday’s Hamas attack on the kibbutz on October 14, 2023 in Be’eri, Israel

Palestinian militants drive back to the Gaza Strip with the body of an Israeli soldier on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023

Hamas systematically used rape and sexual violence during the massacre as part of a ‘deliberate genocidal strategy’, according to a report by the Dinah Project, an all-women group of Israeli legal and gender experts.

Former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky, 31, has publicly spoken out about being sexually assaulted by her captors in Gaza after she was abducted from her home on Kibbutz Nir Oz, where she lived with her partner, Matan Zangauker, who is still being held in the Strip.

‘I remember that they hit me and I screamed, and then there was darkness. When I woke up, I was half-naked surrounded by terrorists,’ she said in July.

‘They beat me. I went through hell. My bones were broken, but that didn’t compare to the psychological pain I was put through,’ she added. ‘Nobody should experience what I did.’ 

Other documents recovered after the massacre reveal how terrorists were given detailed instructions to film and broadcast the assault.

One manual shows step-by-step instructions militants were given on how to livestream the atrocity using mobile phones, Skype, and social media platforms like VK. 

The guidelines instruct the Hamas operatives how to clean their camera lenses, disable incoming calls, switch SIM cards, and even give advice on how to upload footage privately if internet access is unavailable.

The attack started at 6.30am when thousands of rockets were launched from Gaza to Israel; most of the strikes were aimed north at Tel Aviv and surrounding cities such as Ashdod and Netanya. 

Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian, center, from Kfar Azza kibbutz into the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023

The chilling directives have come to light in a series of documents released for the first time by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, just days before the two-year anniversary of the massacre

Hamas seen raiding kibbutz of Be’eri, tiny farming community . Gunman seen setting light to hous

Around 7.00am, armed militants, garbed in body armour and carrying AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, arrived to the Supernova festival in the Negev desert.

There, a rave turned into a terrifying bloodbath as terrorists murdered almost 400 young people, just three miles from the Gaza border on the grounds of Kibbutz Re’im.

Some 44 partygoers were kidnapped to Gaza, including Noa Argamani, who spent 246 days in Hamas captivity before being released in an Israeli rescue mission alongside Shlomi Ziv, Andrey Kozlov and Almog Meir Jan.

A video of her being dragged away from Nova by two Hamas terrorists on a motorbike as she screamed in terror was shared widely, and became one of the most recognisable pictures in the wake of the massacre.

Kibbutz Be’eri, where houses were burnt, bomb shelters fired upon and hostages taken, was one of the worst-hit communities in the Hamas-led attack.

Some 101 civilians and 31 security personnel on the 1000-person kibbutz were killed, and a further 30 residents and two more civilians were taken hostage. Nearly one in 10 people at the kibbutz were killed or taken hostage that day. 

Some 62 residents, including five soldiers and a member of the Shin Bet, and 18 security personnel were killed in Kfar Aza, while a further 19 civilians were taken hostage.

The assault on Israel triggered a massive military retaliation that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health authorities there.