In the early hours of October 7, 2023, the Idan family on Kibbutz Nahal Oz was shaken when Hamas terrorists broke into their home. As the family tried to seek refuge in their safe space, the terrorists murdered their eldest daughter Maayan in front of her parents and siblings and then kidnapped the fatherTzachi. The scene was broadcast live on social media, forcing the nation to witness her agonizing final moments.
At the same time, in Kibbutz Holit, 16-year-old Rotem Matias hid under his mother’s lifeless body and sent a text message to his sisters with the heartbreaking message: “Mom and Dad are dead. Sorry.”
In Kfar Aza, Roee Idan was killed while holding his three-year-old daughter Abigail, while his older children watched in horror. Her mother Smadar was also shot in front of her. Afterwards, the children hid in a closet, trapped with their mother’s body, uncertain about the fate of their younger sister, who was later kidnapped to Gaza.
ISRAELI POLICE SAY EXTREME SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND ADMINISTRATION BY HAMAS TERRORISTS WAS SYSTEMATIC
A bloody handprint stains a wall in a house in Nir Oz after Hamas terrorists attacked that kibbutz near the Gaza border days earlier. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
These are just a few of the countless stories documented in a new report published on Tuesday, co-authored by Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, founder of the October 7 Civil Commission on Crimes Against Women and Children, and Dr. Michal Gilad and Dr. Ilya Rudyak The report introduces the term “cinocide” to describe the systematic targeting and destruction of family units during the attack – an unprecedented atrocity that goes beyond typical warfare.
“A crime without a name for victims without a voice,” as Dr. Elkayam-Levy described it. “The perpetrators not only killed, but deliberately tried to destroy the foundation of human society: the family.”
“The hardest crimes to watch were those involving families,” Dr. Elkayam-Levy continued, “While the Hamas perpetrators As they celebrated their violence, chanted religious slogans and spread their actions on social media, the terror was not limited to the immediate victims but intensified worldwide.”
“The use of social media was crucial in spreading terror and inspiring similar acts of violence elsewhere,” Merav Israeli-Amarant, CEO of the Civilian Commission, told Fox News Digital. She referred to the tactic as a “terror filter,” a term coined by legal scholar Tehila Schwartz Altshuler, and explained that the broadcasts were intended to radicalize and incite other terrorists.
Israeli soldiers remove the bodies of civilians killed days earlier in an attack by Palestinian terrorists on this kibbutz near the Gaza border, October 10, 2023, in Kfar Aza, Israel. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)
As Elkayam-Levy and her team dug deeper, they found that similar tactics have been documented in conflicts around the world, from Argentina and Iraq to Syria, Sierra Leone and Myanmar. “We were in contact with survivors of the cinema murder, including Yazidiswho shared their experiences. The pain is universal. “This has happened before, but it never had a name,” said Dr. Elkayam Levy.
In collaboration with the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, the commission worked to identify these patterns of abuse and ensure that cinema murder is recognized as a crime in its own right. The new report, released after a year of research, includes interviews with survivors, visits to sites where the atrocities took place and a comprehensive review of the evidence. The aim is to bring cinema murder into the international legal discourse and argue that it urgently needs to be recognized as a crime in its own right.
A woman collapses at the monument to Yulia Waxer Daunov as family members and friends of the missing and abducted gather at the site of the Nova festival to mark the one-year anniversary of attacks by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2024 in Re I am Israel . (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Professor Irwin Cotler, former Canadian justice minister and international chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, said: “Silence in the face of such evil is not neutrality; it is complicity. Worse, there has been denial, justification, and even glorification of these heinous acts underscoring the moral and legal imperative to take decisive action against such crimes. The dangers of anti-Semitism are not just the oldest and deadliest of hatreds – they are also a harbinger of global evil, as the events of October 7 prove.”
“We need an international coalition to confront this systematic form of attack on families,” said Elkayam-Levy. “But international law did failed because of the survivors from October 7th. The current legal framework does not adequately protect families in the event of such attacks.”
An Israeli couple with their national flag walks in front of graffiti demanding the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip since the October 7 attack by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel, in Jerusalem November 18, 2023. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images)
The report, which has received support from international legal experts and human rights activists worldwide, highlights the urgent need for legal and social recognition of cinema killings. However, despite the report’s widespread support, Elkayam-Levy expressed concern about the international community’s response.
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As someone who faced pushback from prominent figures in the international human rights community in response to her latest case Report on sexual violence On October 7, she said: “We live in dark times when international law is being weaponized against us (Israelis) in frightening ways. As an international human rights scholar, I never imagined that we would live in a time when such abuses were directed against us.” It really scares me.”
