How have Israeli and international authorities described the nature and scale of atrocities committed on October 7, 2023?
Executive summary
Israeli authorities, Western governments and many international bodies describe the October 7, 2023 assault as an unprecedented, brutal terrorist massacre in which roughly 1,200–1,250 people were killed and some 250 people taken hostage [1] [2] [3]. Independent UN and major human-rights investigations, and groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty, have concluded the October 7 attacks involved war crimes and crimes against humanity by Hamas and other armed groups, while those same UN inquiries and NGOs have also reported widespread alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by Israeli forces in Gaza after October 7 [4] [5] [6] [7].
1. How states and Israel framed October 7: “worst massacre” and terrorism
Israeli officials and many Western governments called the events of October 7 a terrorist onslaught of extraordinary scale and brutality. France described it as “terrorist attacks of an unprecedented scale and brutality” and “the worst anti‑Semitic massacre since the Holocaust,” citing roughly 1,219 killed and 251 hostages [1]. The EU and other Western statements emphasized Hamas’s responsibility and demanded immediate release of hostages, framing the event as a justification for Israel’s right of self‑defence while warning that responses must comply with international law [8] [1].
2. Independent fact‑finding: war crimes and crimes against humanity by Palestinian armed groups
Human Rights Watch and the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry found that Hamas’s military wing and several other Palestinian armed groups committed numerous violations of the laws of war on October 7 that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including deliberate killings, hostage‑taking and sexual violence, based on witness interviews, forensic evidence and open‑source verification [4] [5] [9].
3. Independent fact‑finding: allegations against Israeli authorities after October 7
The UN Commission’s broader inquiries concluded that Israeli military operations in Gaza since October 7 amounted to war crimes and, in some reports, crimes against humanity—finding that Israeli authorities bore responsibility for actions including indiscriminate attacks, attacks on civilians and collective punishment, based on satellite imagery, medical and forensic data and extensive submissions [6] [5] [9].
4. Competing legal and political narratives on scale and intent
Legal assessments diverge on whether the October 7 assaults or subsequent campaigns meet the legal threshold for “genocide.” Amnesty in late 2024 concluded Israeli actions in Gaza amounted to genocide, citing intent to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza and detailed strike investigations [10] [7]. A later UN Commission (reported in UN/OHCHR releases) concluded Israeli authorities committed multiple genocidal acts in Gaza, saying there was intent to destroy the Palestinian group in whole or in part [11]. Other legal analyses and state statements instead emphasize the October 7 killings as mass murder and terrorism by Hamas, and justify Israel’s military response as self‑defence while stressing legal limits [1] [8] [12].
5. Numbers, victims and methods: what investigators documented
Major fact‑finding bodies report roughly 1,200–1,250 killed in the October 7 attacks and about 250 hostages taken; UN and rights investigations catalogue murder, hostage‑taking, torture, sexual violence and outrages against personal dignity by attackers, and document extensive civilian deaths and destruction in Gaza from Israeli bombardment and siege measures [3] [2] [9] [7].
6. Questions investigators still flag and Israeli access
UN investigators explicitly said Israel obstructed access crucial to their probes, calling attention to limited on‑the‑ground access, withheld information and restrictions on witness contact—conditions the Commission says affected the completeness of its findings [5] [9]. Investigators have repeatedly requested further cooperation from Israeli authorities on sexual‑and gender‑based crimes and other allegations [9].
7. Political consequences and narrative warfare
October 7 reshaped geopolitics and public narratives: it galvanized firm condemnations of Hamas across many states, prompted international solidarity with Israeli victims, and simultaneously intensified scrutiny of Israel’s conduct and its allies’ support—fostering competing narratives about proportionality, accountability and selective application of international law [13] [14] [15].
Limitations: available sources do not provide exhaustive court findings or final legal judgments on genocide for all claims; many reports are investigative, fact‑finding and advisory rather than judicial rulings (not found in current reporting). Sources above present competing conclusions—some describing October 7 as mass murder/terrorism [1] [8], others documenting war crimes by Hamas [4] and also indicting Israeli operations as war crimes/crimes against humanity and, in some reports, genocide [6] [10] [11]. Readers should treat legal classifications as contested and evolving across different international bodies and NGOs [5] [10] [11].