Israelis accuse army of tampering with October 2023 events surveillance footage: Report

Israelis in settlements near the Gaza Strip are increasingly angry, accusing the army of seizing private surveillance footage related to the October 7, 2023 events and returning it “incomplete and deliberately altered,” Israeli media reports revealed.

Israeli officials regard the events as the country’s biggest intelligence and military failure, one that severely damaged the image of Israel and its army globally.

The local daily Israel Hayom reported Wednesday evening that residents of settlements bordering the Palestinian enclave “say the Israeli army deleted parts of their private surveillance camera recordings from Oct. 7, 2023.”

A special Israeli reserve force arrived at Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 9, 2023, and “confiscated camera recordings under the pretext of an urgent need to help recover the hostages," according to the newspaper. Some of the footage was later broadcast without the people’s consent.

The report said Israelis “claim the material returned to them was incomplete and deliberately edited.”

According to testimonies from Be’eri, the army not only broke promises regarding privacy, but also leaked footage to media outlets and the army spokesperson’s unit without obtaining approval from the owners, sparking outrage among residents.

Although the report did not specify exactly which scenes were removed, the transfer of the records to multiple bodies within the military establishment without the owners’ consent raised suspicions about the narrative the army wanted to promote -- or conceal -- regarding certain security failures during the events.

The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the accusations, which raise questions about the transparency of its internal investigations into the failures of that day.

Following the events, the army launched a series of internal investigations in which it acknowledged failing to protect settlements near Gaza, particularly in Be’eri. However, those investigations have faced a crisis of confidence and political disputes amid demands for an independent state commission of inquiry.

Several senior Israeli military commanders who were in office during the October 2023 events later resigned, including former Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Southern Command chief Yaron Finkelman, and Operations Directorate head Oded Basiuk, all acknowledging responsibility for the failures.

The Israeli opposition has repeatedly demanded the formation of an independent official commission of inquiry into the October 2023 events, with members appointed by the Supreme Court. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has rejected those calls, insisting instead on forming what critics describe as a “political committee.”

Following the events, the Israeli army launched a brutal offensive that has killed more than 72,000 people, mostly women and children, injured over 172,000 others and devastated around 90% of civilian infrastructure in Gaza.

Since a ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, 2025, Israeli attacks and gunfire have killed around 857 Palestinians and injured 2,486 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul