'Extremely horrible'- Senior Israeli official confirms reports of beheaded babies
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 international spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Konrakus.
00:03 Thanks so much for your time once again, Jonathan.
00:06 First of all, we have seen this footage released by Al Jazeera of apparent
00:10 hostages being released on your side of the border by Hamas.
00:16 What can you tell us about that?
00:17 Yes, thank you for having me.
00:22 Good morning. We've seen that footage.
00:25 It's being investigated, and I would cautiously say that the
00:31 preliminary assessment is that this is old footage.
00:34 Again, preliminary assessment, we are in a very fluid situation,
00:39 but I don't think that this is recent and it needs to be verified for authenticity.
00:48 Anything broadcast on Al Jazeera is suspect, to say the least,
00:53 and usually they are a mouthpiece of different terrorist organisations,
00:57 Hamas included. But point aside, I think that this footage
01:05 doesn't actually portray what it's supposed to portray and it needs to be further corroborated.
01:11 So, Jonathan, when you say old footage, you obviously are saying it's not from today or the last 24 hours.
01:18 Could it have been from Saturday or Sunday or you think even prior to the attacks?
01:25 No, no, I'm talking about Saturday.
01:28 There were events. We have old reports of, I've heard, unconfirmed,
01:34 you know, in the millions of pieces of information that are flying around as this war unfolds.
01:40 I did hear reports of some of the Israelis who were able to make their way back
01:46 in the mayhem of the first hours. Again, unconfirmed and not very detailed.
01:51 And that could be one of them. And again, I wouldn't lend very much credence to anything published on Al Jazeera,
01:57 especially not if it's something that is supposed to benefit Hamas in the eye of global public opinion.
02:05 Right. OK. Initial intelligence then from you suggests that that is old footage.
02:09 OK, let's talk about another main report that we've seen in the last couple of days.
02:16 I spoke to you about this yesterday, but we've just heard from President Biden.
02:20 He said it's important that the American people know what happened.
02:23 I didn't believe I would ever see a picture of a terrorist beheading children.
02:28 We've verified it. Yesterday, you couldn't verify those reports out of that particular kibbutz.
02:34 What can you tell us today, Jonathan? I can tell you that it's been verified firsthand by a senior official in our coronary service.
02:44 It's called Zaka in Hebrew. They are the people who have the dubious task of locating bodies and bringing them to a proper burial.
02:56 That's the service they do. And they are the people who collect the bodies.
03:00 And there's a person, a senior person who was identified on record.
03:04 I think he was on CBS News personally testified to the fact that he indeed saw the heads of severed babies.
03:15 And I know that the Israeli prime minister's office has also corroborated the news.
03:20 I, of course, haven't seen the atrocity myself, but I think those two sources enough should be enough to be able to verify the this
03:29 extremely horrible piece of information that we are confronted with.
03:34 OK, so I hate to get into the grim detail here, but was it in that same kibbutz that we were talking about yesterday?
03:42 And we were talking about reports of up to 40 babies being murdered, some of them decapitated.
03:49 So do we know numbers? Indeed, we're talking about, yes, we are talking about kibbutz Kfar Aza,
03:55 which was a small and beautiful community with lots of gentle and peace loving people who lived in harmony in the area with many Arab friends,
04:09 friends in Gaza and who also provided livelihood for Palestinian workers from Gaza who used to work in the fields and agricultural areas of the kibbutz.
04:20 These are the people who are now slaughtered. And I think that there was a major situation at the in one of the families or the the the areas where the children are.
04:35 And that was what explained the absolutely horrific number of children and babies.
04:44 I cannot confirm 40 specifically, I cannot confirm the number 40, but I have read firsthand reports of many babies and the gruesome detail that they were also beheaded.
04:58 And if we're into gruesome details, I have heard firsthand reports of a mutilated body of a pregnant woman and the atrocities go on and on and on.
05:12 As we uncover more bodies of Israelis and civilians, you know, we find them tied with their hands behind their back and executed ISIS style and people that suffocated to death or were burned to death inside their homes
05:30 because Hamas terrorists lit their houses on fire and they didn't get out and they were simply burned alive or suffocated and deaths by the most gruesome methods that I have seen.
05:46 So, yes, the atrocities are abundant. And again, this should serve to everyone who is watching this conflict and who cares about the situation.
05:56 And I know that there are many in Australia who are very emotional about the situation in Gaza and are asking questions about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, etc.
06:07 Those are valid questions and I understand where they come from.
06:11 But we must remember how this started and we must remember what atrocity unleashed all this carnage.
06:20 And that is what Hamas did to our citizens.
06:24 So, Jonathan, you're not unmoved by what you've seen coming out of Gaza because they too have lost children.
06:34 Definitely. I don't think that anybody in Israel or definitely not in the military is unmoved or has any joy or interest in civilians being affected by warfare.
06:46 That is never our aim.
06:49 We fight against ruthless terrorist organizations and when you do that, you have to be strong and apply force.
06:56 That is the sad reality and the environment that we live in.
06:59 I wish we had nice neighbors like you have, but we don't.
07:03 We have horrible, murderous neighbors who are out to kill us.
07:08 And this is not me saying it.
07:10 This has been proven in blood with 1,200 dead Israelis as proof for it.
07:16 And against them we have to fight.
07:19 And yes, we will continue to carry ourselves according to the laws of our conflict.
07:24 We will continue to strike proportionately.
07:27 We will continue to strike military targets.
07:30 But we are doing it with tremendous force because Hamas has overstepped and really unleashed the floodgates of hell on Gaza.
07:40 And the responsibility is only on the shoulders of Hamas.
07:45 Not on us. It is on the shoulders of Hamas.
07:48 OK. On the question of proportionality, 20 hours ago, the IDF tweeted that 20 targets, 200 targets had been hit from Israeli jets
07:58 that would culminate in, I think, 450 over that 24 hour period or perhaps less.
08:05 I note reports of those bombardments continuing right throughout the night.
08:12 There seems to have been a significant step up in your strikes on Gaza this evening.
08:21 Is that a correct assumption?
08:25 No, not entirely. The higher tempo of operations was more yesterday, up until yesterday morning.
08:34 Today we are just 1.30am Israeli time on Thursday.
08:40 I have to look at the watch to keep track.
08:42 And yesterday was a day of intense aerial activity over Gaza,
08:49 with lots of Hamas targets being struck in various places all around the Gaza Strip.
08:55 As of now, I think that if you connect to a live feed, then the situation is relatively quiet.
09:01 And what we are doing on our side in terms of the future is that we are deploying the different sensors that we have,
09:10 looking and listening and trying to pick up indications of the whereabouts of senior Hamas commanders
09:17 to gain more understanding of where they are and what they're doing to intercept rockets when they're being launched and that type of operations.
09:27 And can you confirm that Israel is preparing for a ground invasion?
09:35 I can confirm that we have been tasked by the Israeli military to strip Hamas of all of its military capacities.
09:43 And I can also confirm that we have enlisted or called up more than 300,000 reservists, all of them from ground units.
09:53 300,000 reservists. That was the same number you gave us yesterday.
09:57 Although 360,000. So are you saying that most of those are amassed near the border now in preparation for that?
10:05 I know you're not saying there will definitely be a ground invasion, but you're definitely prepared for that?
10:12 We are indeed preparing. That is what we're doing and all options are on the table.
10:18 And at what point does that change? What's the catalyst?
10:21 Give it away. Right. What point does what change?
10:28 Well, what changes the fact whether there will be a ground invasion or not into Gaza?
10:35 Well, I think it's a matter of time, preparations and, of course, directive.
10:42 A ground operation in such a densely populated area, which a quite serious enemy has had time to prepare in terms of tunnels,
10:53 IEDs, booby traps, etc., is not an easy endeavour, not something that you do out of anger and quickly.
11:01 It's something that you plan well and prepare. And that is what we're doing now. Planning, preparing and getting ready.
11:08 Jonathan Conricos, we really appreciate your time at 1.30am local time there.
11:13 And forgive me, these are important questions and we just want to make sure we get clear answers.
11:19 I know you understand that. So thank you.
11:22 Definitely, indeed. And the public is entitled to these answers.
11:26 Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricos live there from Tel Aviv.