British parliamentary group updates Oct 7 report with new data and survivor testimonies

A British parliamentary group announced Wednesday that it had published an updated version of its detailed report on the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack, originally released last year. The revision includes new data and survivor testimony from former hostage Emily Damari and other Israeli survivors. It also incorporates “heat maps” from IDF inquiries showing where militants operated and where the worst violence against civilians occurred.

The 340-page report – described as the most comprehensive of its kind in English – was led by the prominent British historian Andrew Roberts and commissioned by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Israel. It aims to document the reality of the Hamas Oct. 7 atrocities amid growing denial of the crimes committed against largely Israeli civilians.

“Parliamentarians were saying that they were being confronted with Oct. 7 denial from constituents, so the group decided to put together an authoritative body of work to document what actually happened,” a source linked to the commission explained.

Some 1,200 people were killed and more than 4,000 injured in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack. The group also took 251 hostages, including children, women, and elderly Holocaust survivors. Most victims were Israeli, though nationals from 44 countries were also among those killed or abducted.

A source linked to the commission said the report aims to make key facts about the attack accessible to a broader English-speaking audience that does not read Hebrew or follow Israeli media: “This audience doesn’t see a lot of the media that comes out of Israel, so this was a useful way to present the information.” 

The report has been hailed for its factual, analytical style, devoid of emotion. Widespread ignorance about the Oct. 7 attack has fueled anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments in the United Kingdom and around the world. 

“This report is there so that people know exactly what happened in the attacks,” an insider said.

Roberts, known for his acclaimed works on Winston Churchill and World War II, explained why he accepted the task of compiling the Oct. 7 report.

“As a Gentile, I believe that it is vital to prevent the emergence of another, more modern version of Holocaust denial, namely 7 October denial,” Roberts wrote in the foreword of the report. “After the Holocaust, non-Jews like me owe the Jewish people nothing less.”

The historian described the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre as “one of the most evil crimes against humanity.” 

"In future generations, when people come up and say, ‘Oh, it never happened...,’ they will whack this 319-page report down on the table, with all of the endless footnotes and facts, and evidence and witness statements, that shows beyond any doubt whatsoever that one of the most evil crimes against humanity did indeed take place on October 7, 2023," Roberts stated last year.