The Israel embassy on Wednesday showed raw footage of the October 7 attack to Indian media as part of an exercise being carried out in a dozen or more countries to address demands of evidence of the actions of Hamas as Tel Aviv faces criticism for the relentless bombing of the Gaza Strip since.

The 45-minute-long film of raw footage put together from GoPro cameras that many of the Hamas terrorists were wearing, dashcams of both victims and their assailants, traffic cameras, CCTVs and phone cameras was shown to a select group of journalists under tight security conditions. No one was allowed to take their phones in and even smart watches had to be removed to ensure there was no recording.

Explaining the reason for the strict protocol, Israel’s ambassador to India Naor Gilon said families of some of the victims had requested that the footage not be made public. Add to it the importance attached in Judaism to maintaining the sanctity of the human body and respect for the dead. Still, some of this footage is already in circulation online.

Since last week, the Israeli government has begun organising the screening of the footage to the media in different countries, beginning with Tel Aviv. Similar screenings have already been organised in the US, Brazil, Australia and China. After India on Wednesday, a screening is scheduled to be held in Paris on Thursday. The raw footage will be shown to the media in about 15-20 countries, Israeli officials said.

Another consideration that has apparently influenced the decision not to release the footage is the fact that Hamas filmed much of their actions and imitated the Islamic State in celebrating their kills in the hope of using mass media and social media to spread their clout beyond their actual footprint. “They documented everything to generate fear,” Gilon pointed out.

Officially described as the “biggest terror attack” in the history of Israel, the raw footage captures not only the brutality but in the process also shows the absence of any response by Israel’s famed security establishment for hours after the coordinated attacks began at 6.30 in the morning.

The terrorists can be seen moving around in an unhurried manner and killing people randomly, pulling the bodies out of vehicles and then using the same cars to move on. In a kibbutz, one of the terrorists immobilises an ambulance by shooting at its tyres. At a music festival, the door of every single toilet cubicle was shot at. Even a dog which came in their way was not spared.