The website includes graphic footage from Hamas’ brutal rampage across southern Israeli towns, the Nova music festival, and military bases.
By Troy O. Fritzhand, The Algemeiner
The Israeli government’s website showing the horrors of the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel has received significant online traffic in the week since its launch, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The website — https://saturday-october-seven.com/ — has already garnered more than 43 million views, including around half a million that led to people exploring the site’s content about the Oct. 7 atrocities.
The site, which includes disturbing videos and pictures of the crimes committed, contains a warning: “Extreme viewer discretion is advised.”
The IDF launched the site in partnership with Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate the day before the start of South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) charging Israel with committing “genocide” in Gaza.
The website’s content includes graphic footage from Hamas’ brutal rampage across southern Israeli towns, the Nova music festival, and military bases. All told, Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,200 people and took over 240 hostages during its onslaught, sparking the war in Gaza.
In response to the surprise invasion, Israel has been waging a military campaign of air strikes and ground operations against Hamas in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave ruled by the terror group, pledging to continue the fight until all the hostages are freed and Hamas no longer poses a major threat to the Israeli people.
According to the IDF, the most viewed sections of the site were the parts focusing on the attacks on Israeli villages and the music festival, where terrorists murdered over 360 people.
Beyond the murders and kidnappings, mounting evidence has documented Hamas’ systematic use of torture and sexual violence, including mass rape, against the Israeli people.
Launched only outside of Israel, the most visitors to the site came from the United States, Germany, England, and Canada.
Yuval Horowitz, one of the site creators, told Hebrew media that it was crucial to remind the world how the war in Gaza started.
“We understand that as we move further away from Oct. 7, it is even more important to remember what started the whole war,” he said. “It is of crucial importance for global legitimacy. It is important to echo this to audiences who don’t really understand and don’t even believe that this is what happened on Oct. 7. Using the website, we were able to bring back the Oct. 7 scenes to consciousness, and we make the crimes directly accessible to audiences.”
In order to maximize its reach, including among pro-Hamas activists demonstrating across the West, the site builders plugged in keywords like “South Africa” and “genocide” so it would appear in their search feeds.
Moshik Aviv, head of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate, said that when the site launched the goal was to “commemorate and recall the terrible atrocities that were carried out against the citizens of Israel on the black Saturday of Oct. 7.”
“We will continue to act so that the citizens of the world will be unable to remain indifferent to the terrible massacre that we experienced,” Aviv continued. “This is an important public diplomacy and diplomatic tool that presents severe crimes against humanity.”
Aviv added that the website will assist in Israel’s defense against South Africa’s case at the ICJ and in its public diplomacy efforts more broadly.
“This site will assist the State of Israel in its mission of reminding the world that we are the victim of the unprecedented terrorist event that we experienced,” he said.