FIDF launches digital library of firsthand Oct 7 testimonies

Ahead of the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) released an extensive English-language digital library featuring firsthand testimonies from Israelis who experienced the Hamas atrocities.

The library initially contains more than 50 accounts and 12 hours of footage from bereaved families, former hostages and Israeli soldiers who experienced the worst day in Israel’s modern history. The digital collection is intended to make these firsthand accounts accessible to Christian and Jewish supporters of Israel in the United States and around the world.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Nadav Padan, CEO of FIDF, said the digital library was created in response to growing demand for firsthand accounts of Oct. 7.

"Since October 7, we have been moved by the surge of supporters across Jewish and Christian communities in the United States who want to understand more closely what happened in Israel on that devastating day and the days that followed and hear directly from the people who experienced it," Padan stated.

"Three years later, it is important not only to preserve these testimonies, but also to make them accessible in English to the communities that support Israel and IDF soldiers," he explained. "This library allows them to hear firsthand from soldiers, hostage survivors and families, and to learn the personal stories behind October 7."

FIDF plans to expand the library with additional testimonies as they are recorded and added digitally.

The current collection features Moshe and Shira Shapira, the parents of IDF Staff Sgt. Aner Shapira, who was killed during the Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israeli border communities. It also includes a testimony from Rabbi Doron Perez, the father of IDF Capt. Daniel Perez, who was killed by Hamas and whose body was later taken to Gaza.

Users can also hear an account from IDF Col. Elad Edri, who recounted the Hamas attack on the Israeli military’s Zikim base. The library also features IDF veteran Izzy Ezagui, who lost an arm in combat and later returned to serve in the Israeli military’s reserves.

Hamas massacred some 1,200 Israelis during the Oct. 7 attack. In addition, Hamas and its supporters kidnapped 251 people, mainly from southern Israeli border communities and the Nova Music Festival.

The FIDF library includes testimonies from former hostages including Amit Soussana, Noa Argamani, Maya Regev, Almog Meir Jan, Maxim Herkin and Edan Alexander.

Argamani and Meir Jan were among four Israeli hostages freed during a dramatic Israeli military rescue operation in central Gaza in June 2024. The operation, named “Operation Arnon”, was named after Arnon Zamora, a soldier in Israel’s elite police commando unit Yamam who was killed during the rescue mission.

Beyond making firsthand Oct. 7 testimonies available to an international audience, FIDF says it also seeks to preserve firsthand documentation for future generations and counter growing denial of the atrocities, which has been compared to Holocaust denial.

In April 2025, the British 7th of October Parliamentary Commission Report was released under the leadership of prominent British historian Lord Andrew Roberts. Roberts explained in an interview that the purpose of the detailed report is to document facts for future generations, making it impossible to deny that the Oct. 7 atrocities happened.

Roberts, who has written extensively on Nazi Germany and the Second World War, called Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities 'One of the most evil crimes in history.'