Praise of Hamas’s October 7 “achievements and capabilities,” justification of the massacre in Kibbutz Be’eri, and “exclusive Hamas footage” of Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammad Deif all starred in the latest episode of the Qatari state-owned television channel Al Jazeera’s documentary series, What is Hidden is Greater.
Notably, the show’s presenter, Tamer Almisshal, received direct instructions and requests from Hamas, according to Hamas documents exposed by the IDF spokesperson last October.
During the latest one-hour-long episode, Almisshal presented events prior to and after the October 7 massacre based on what he said was “documented evidence.”
These events included Hamas’s “October 5 war order” and “exclusive footage” from Hamas, including scenes showing Sinwar disguised as an elderly person scanning maps with the now-deceased commander of the Tel al-Sultan Battalion, Mahmoud Hamdan, as both supposedly planned an attack in Rafah while standing close to a nearby Israeli tank.Almisshal praised Sinwar as a man who fought “from zero distance” up to the very end, leaving behind a legacy of heroic leadership.
More “exclusive footage” supposedly came from Hamas’s war room and military council meetings in the days leading up to the massacre, allegedly showing Hamas chief Mohammed Deif with his face blurred, studying maps and “planning the attack” in a studio-like environment.Deif was heard talking about “taking control” of the areas surrounding Gaza’s borders and calling to “fracture the area of Majdal (Ashkelon).”
Additional ‘exclusive material” from before the attack claimed to show Izzadin al-Qassam terrorists carrying out “investigative missions” near the security barrier and testing Israeli surveillance tech on the fence in preparation for the attack.It also featured footage of an IDF patrol led by Col. Asaf Hamami, the commander of the Southern Brigade. Hamami was later killed in the massacre.Further, the episode was dotted with images of the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades’ infiltration into both civilian homes and military posts, with graphic images of dead soldiers and the kidnapping of female soldiers into Gaza abound.Interestingly, there was no coverage in the episode of Hamas’s kidnappings of the civilian population.
Justifying the massacre
Almisshal also presented an exclusive interview he had with Izz Eddin Al-Haddad, a high-ranking commander in Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades.
According to Almisshal, the interview was conducted under severe restrictions dictated by the terrorist group, citing “security concerns.”
Almisshal also
interviewed an unnamed masked individual who he said participated in the “operation of the infiltration of Kibbutz Be’eri.”The individual was being granted a platform “to explain and justify the massacre in the kibbutz,” Almisshal said.“We were shot at many times by women and elderly people who were carrying guns,” the terrorist said in an attempt to explain why over 100 of the kibbutz’s residents, including children and a baby, were murdered and another 31 were taken hostage.“I swear to Allah, we took care of the women and children and only shot those who shot at us,” the interviewee said.He said that Israel shot at the kibbutz with warplanes, accusing Israel of the fatalities.Evading the context of the civilian casualties, Almisshal claimed that dozens of the civilians killed on October 7 included members of the kibbutzim’s Civil Guard units, adding that this provided a glimpse into the “nature of the clashes that ensued inside the kibbutzim.”Other participants on the show included foreign scholars or experts, including Jeroen Gunning, deemed “a founder of critical terrorism studies,” who claimed that the massacre came in the context of halting normalization ties between Israel and Arab countries.Andreas Krieg, another guest, said that “some of them (Hamas terrorists) may have gone into one kibbutz,” adding that this was a natural outcome since the further it invaded Israel, the more likely it was that Hamas would encounter civilians.Another speaker, Mike Mihailovitch, said that Israel carried out the Hannibal Directive (an assumed IDF protocol meant to prevent soldiers from being captured by enemies), while a former Israeli intelligence official, Alon Eviatar, described the shock that ensued in Israel following the massacre and the rifts within Israeli society.Almisshal used Eviatar’s comments to laud Hamas’s “capabilities and achievements” even further.Additional footage on the show showed the presumed daily activity of the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades inside some of the tunnels, including praying, planning attacks, and “placing” explosives inside a tunnel while hiding in an ambush.The episode showed clips taken by Hamas’s media department throughout, displaying terrorists engaged in battle while dressed in civilian clothing, as well as videos of hostage-takings and shootings.Almisshal ended the episode by praising Hamas’s “historical blow” and “preemptive strike” against Israel, saying that even one year later, Israel was still unable to retrieve its hostages and stop Hamas.