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The exhibition “Return to October” offers a detailed reconstruction of Hamas led by Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, including video and Israeli Defense Forces intelligence and planning materials found in the Gaza Strip revealing how the Palestinian terrorist group planned and carried out its cross-border attacks.
The 600-square-meter exhibit, put together by the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC), is a non-profit organization dedicated to remembering fallen members of Israel's intelligence community.
The exhibit includes the vehicles used in the attack, a film about the Israeli hostage-taking, a fake Hamas tunnel, and 47 minutes of excerpts from the Israel Defense Forces interspersed with raw footage of the attack.
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Hamas kidnapping kit from Oct. 7 in an attack involving handcuffs, electric shock devices and injections aimed at injecting resisting captors was shown at the 'Back to October' show in Israel. (Amelie Botbol of Fox News Digital)
“The main conclusion of this exhibition is that Hamas has prepared this terrorist attack for a long time in a very systematic and technical way. It has collected a lot of intelligence during many years, and visitors can see examples of that effort to collect intelligence throughout the exhibition,” Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the Institute for the Research of the Methodology of Intelligence in Israel, Foxmome News told Commissioner Heritage Intelligetal.
Kuperwasser said the most important thing in this exhibition is the collection of documents taken by the IDF in Gaza that Hamas wants to hide. Among them are evidence that Hezbollah chose not to fully associate it with the October 7 attack due to concerns that Israel would respond with a major attack. The documents also shed light on the relationship between Hamas and Iran, including the extent of Tehran's involvement.
“The most important lesson is that Israel's enemies are always planning major terrorist attacks. They want to wipe us off the map, and if you are complacent and think that they are not preparing for such an attack, you are wrong,” he said.
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Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic Hamas propaganda displayed at the 'Back to October' demonstration in Israel. (Amelie Botbol of Fox News Digital)
The first room of the exhibition has a map marking 114 points where terrorists broke through the border into Israel on Oct. 7. The red circles indicate the attacked communities, while the dotted red line indicates where the attackers were finally stopped. According to the show, about 4,300 Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations entered Israel at the beginning of the attack, followed by another 1,500 to 1,700 Gazans described as “unaffiliated civilians.”
In the room, Egyptian, North Korean, Russian, Chinese and Iranian weapons are displayed, as well as weapons given to Hamas by Hezbollah.
Tour guide Eyal, whose last name cannot be disclosed, displayed a kidnapping kit containing handcuffs, electrocution devices and syringes intended to tranquilize the hostages, next to what he described as a “spiritual kit” containing a small Quran and a fatwa, or religious ruling, calling for the killing of Israelis.
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Personal belongings found in Israeli homes burned by Hamas terrorists during Oct. 7, 2023, are shown at the 'Back to October' exhibition in Israel. (Amelie Botbol of Fox News Digital)
Another display includes the military equipment of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, and a handwritten document found by the IDF in a European hospital in Gaza.
“Here, he is ordering Hamas terrorists to attack Zionists, burn homes, kill and kidnap people, humiliate soldiers, and document everything using GoPro cameras on social media,” Eyal said.
The document also says that Sinwar hoped that Iran, the Houthis, Hezbollah, the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, and the Arab citizens of Israel would join the attack.
Also on display are aerial photographs used by Hamas to map Kibbutz Be'eri, which identify civilian homes, a weapons depot and the security chief's residence; app for 6 Oct. shared only with Hamas officials to prevent leaks; and a booklet translating Arabic phrases into Hebrew.
The exhibition also promotes Hamas education and advocacy. Shelves display books found in Gaza, including copies of Mein Kampf found in schools, while photographs show children armed with weapons after attending Hamas summer camps.
“It starts in childhood,” Eyal told Fox News Digital.
Exhibits showing what organizers say are UNRWA facilities and staff involved in terrorist activities were shown at the 'Back to October' exhibition in Israel. (Amelie Botbol of Fox News Digital)
Another room focuses on Hamas's exploitation of journalists and UNRWA for terrorist purposes, containing exhibits that organizers say show 60% of journalists killed in Gaza were members of Hamas or affiliated with the organization, a photo of an UNRWA school allegedly used as a military headquarters, and a map of Israel listing cities and towns in Arabic.
The garage-like room displays the white Toyota truck and motorcycles used in the terrorist attack.
“We found out that 153 trucks and 350 motorcycles entered Israel that day. Most of these Toyota vehicles were imported into Gaza through the port of Ashdod in Israel,” said Eyal.
Military equipment on display that organizers say belonged to former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was displayed at the 'Back to October' exhibition in Israel. (Amelie Botbol of Fox News Digital.)
Another room shows excerpts from the IDF's 47-minute compilation of raw footage of the attack. Many journalists chose not to watch because of the captions, while some who remained in the room burst into tears.
Towards the end, the corridor displays the names and photographs, in alphabetical order, of the 1,224 people killed during the attack, including soldiers, police, civilians, Jews, Arabs, Christians and Druze.
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If we fail in our work, this is the situation we come to,” said Eyal.
The last room shows photographs of Israeli captives reunited with their families and ends with a hopeful painting depicting a prosperous southern Israel.
