Updated British parliamentary report sets out full scale of 7 October attacks

A cross-party UK parliamentary commission has released the most detailed account to date of the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel, documenting atrocities across 55 locations and naming nearly 1,200 victims.

The report released on March 18 updates an earlier version and finds 1,183 people were killed, more than 4,000 wounded, and 251 were taken hostage in the 7 October 2023 attacks. It describing the assault as “one of the largest terrorist attacks in recorded history”.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for UK-Israel prepared the second edition of the 7 October Parliamentary Commission Report, chaired by historian Lord Andrew Roberts of Belgravia, which spans hundreds of pages.

It draws on survivor testimony, forensic evidence, military briefings, CCTV footage and body camera recordings to construct what it describes as a “minute-by-minute reconstruction” of the attacks.

With no independent Israeli state commission of inquiry yet established, the report fills a significant gap. Lord Roberts stated it was compiled in the spirit of a “coroner and pathologist rather than judge and jury”, focused on establishing facts rather than assigning blame.

The updated edition, co-chaired by Baroness Hodge of Barking, builds on the first report released in March 2025. It includes 13 new testimonies, revised casualty figures and an expanded mapping of attacks across 30 kibbutzim and moshavim.

The commission states the attack was “the largest single massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust” and “the deadliest per capita terrorist attack the world has seen.” Approximately one in every 10,000 Israelis was killed.

The assault began at 06:29 on a Saturday, coinciding with the Jewish Sabbath and Simchat Torah. Hamas and allied groups fired 3,873 rockets that day, triggering alerts across 498 communities and affecting about 75% of the population. The barrage was designed to “pin civilians inside the Gaza Envelope” before the ground invasion began.

By the end of the day, the border fence had been breached at 119 points. Thousands of militants entered by land, while others arrived by paraglider or by sea near Zikim Beach. In total, 55 locations were attacked, including 32 civilian communities, three cities, two Bedouin villages, two music festivals and 15 military sites.

About 7,000 individuals took part. Hamas led the operation through its Nukhba forces and the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, contributing around 3,800 fighters, supported by allied groups and civilians who crossed into Israel to loot. A further 1,000 operatives remained in Gaza to fire rockets.

The commission found formal preparations began in 2021, with planning likely dating back to before 2014. Secrecy was tightly maintained, with most fighters briefed only hours before the attack. A small leadership group, including Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar and commander Mohammed Deif, oversaw the operation.

Fighters trained on detailed mock-ups of Israeli communities. Hostage-taking manuals were found on attackers’ bodies. According to Lord Roberts, Hamas intelligence was so precise that operatives knew “which side of the bed targeted couples slept on”. Some attackers carried lists of residents to be killed or abducted.

Weapons included rocket-propelled grenades, drones, thermobaric explosives and specialised charges designed to breach both the border fence and reinforced safe-room doors.

Attackers recorded their actions using GoPro cameras and mobile phones, broadcasting killings and abductions on Telegram. In some cases, victims’ phones were used to send footage directly to their families, in what the report describes as a deliberate attempt to “amplify the terror”.

Of the 1,183 people killed, 864 were civilians, accounting for 73% of the total. Women and children made up 27% of fatalities and 49% of those taken hostage alive. The youngest victim was 14 hours old, shot before birth when her mother was attacked en route to hospital. The oldest was a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor killed at Kibbutz Holit.

Citizens from 44 countries were among the victims. Thai nationals were the largest foreign group. Seventeen British nationals were killed, the highest number in a terrorist attack outside the UK since 11 September 2001. Two Britons were taken hostage. One, Nadav Poppelwell, died in captivity. The other, Emily Damari, was released after 471 days.

The kibbutzim of Be’eri, Kfar Aza and Nir Oz were among the hardest hit. Be’eri lost 99 civilians, Kfar Aza 62. Nir Oz had the highest number of kidnappings, with 75 people taken alive and seven bodies removed.

Homes were systematically attacked, burned and looted. Forensic teams found extensive use of incendiary materials, leaving many structures unrecognisable and complicating identification of victims. The updated report includes detailed mapping of attacks and identifies the units involved.

The Nova Music Festival near Kibbutz Re’im was the deadliest single site, with 375 people killed and nine bodies taken to Gaza. The report describes it as “the deadliest concert attack in history”.

Music stopped at 06:40, as organisers told attendees to leave, but escape routes were quickly blocked. Many were killed while hiding or while fleeing along nearby roads. The commission states there was “no chance of it being a coincidence” that Hamas targeted the event.

Route 232 became a major site of killings, with ambushes at more than 30 locations. Gunmen fired on vehicles and threw grenades into roadside shelters.

Attacks on military bases killed more than 150 soldiers and resulted in dozens taken hostage. Nahal Oz base suffered heavy losses, including 50 soldiers killed and 10 taken hostage. Disruption to communications left many communities without military protection for hours.

The report documents what it describes as “systematic crimes”, including hostage-taking, sexual violence, torture and desecration of bodies. Drawing on UN findings and other evidence, it concludes that conflict-related sexual violence occurred across multiple locations.

The commission frames the report as a response to the “7 October denial,” which Lord Roberts compared to the Holocaust denial. “We cannot allow history to be distorted and 7 October denial to win,” he said.

It cites examples of denial and justification by Hamas figures and others. Lord Roberts said: “They are trying to celebrate something they deny happened and deny something that they’ve celebrated happening.”

He said the report deliberately excluded material that could not be independently verified to ensure it remained “irrefutable and impeccable”.

The report also documents a sharp rise in antisemitism in Britain following the attacks. The Community Security Trust recorded 2,699 incidents between October and December 2023, accounting for 66% of the annual total. Overall incidents reached 4,103 in 2023, up 147% on the previous year. A poll found 77% of British Jews felt less safe, while campus incidents rose by 117% between 2022 and 2024.

New testimonies include those of Emily Damari and Anat Ron-Kendall, a British-Israeli survivor. Ron-Kendall said she was “abandoned by the British government at a time of total vulnerability” and warned that antisemitism was “running riot”.

Lord Roberts said the report is intended as a “permanent memorial and enduring resource” for governments, educators and civil society. Co-chairs Bob Blackman MP and Damien Egan MP said it was published reluctantly but was necessary in response to efforts to “distort, dismiss and diminish” the events.

The first edition received support from Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and Jewish organisations, which described it as a vital tool against denial and revisionism.

The report has also faced criticism, with Lord Roberts noting it had been dismissed on social media as “Zionist propaganda”. He rejected such claims, pointing to its cross-party authorship as evidence of independence.

The commission describes the report as a living document. The updated edition revises the death toll from 1,182 to 1,183 after confirming one previously missing individual was killed on 7 October.

The report will be entered into the parliamentary record and distributed to institutions worldwide.