Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Israelis in Be’eri settlement say a classified Israeli military reserve unit collected their security camera footage days after the October 7, 2023 resistance operation, later broadcast parts of it without consent, and returned the material with sections deleted, according to a report by Israel Hayom.
The testimonies center on a special reserve unit made up of veterans from elite Israeli forces, including Sayeret Matkal, Shayetet 13, and other special operations divisions. The unit reportedly entered Gaza border settlements on October 9, 2023, as destruction still filled the area.
Settlers from Be’eri say the unit accessed the settlement command room and took recordings from its security camera system. They say the soldiers promised the material would be returned intact and used only to help locate Israeli soldier prisoners.
“We believed them,” one security team member said. “We handed over the recordings so they could help bring people home.”
Two days later, settlers say they recognized their own surveillance footage on television broadcasts, including widely circulated images from border settlement. One settler said he immediately identified the footage as coming from Be’eri cameras that had been taken by the unit.
The classified unit reportedly operates under Israel’s Ground Forces Command and includes reservists from several elite formations. It was tasked with collecting visual evidence from operation sites, including camera systems, dashcams, and footage taken from combat zones.
Be’eri settlers now say that when the recordings were later returned, some portions were missing or altered. They say they were not informed when parts of the material were used in public screenings or official presentations.
One Be’eri source described the decisions as deliberate. “These were not decisions made in chaos,” the source said. “They were made under fluorescent lights.”
The testimonies raise new questions about Israel's official narrative of what happened. Several reports and testimonies had already revealed that the Israeli army resorted to the Hannibal Directive to prevent resistance fighters from capturing Israeli soldiers. Scenes of the destruction clearly show signs of Apache helicopter and tank strikes on homes.
