As the world continues to be horrified from the barbaric atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, it is shocking to hear the voices in mainstream media and public squares casting doubt and raising skepticism over the validity of events. ELNET is devoted to exposing the truth about the Hamas attack and ensuring that European leaders continue to publicly acknowledge what happened.
Not only is this necessary on the moral level, it is critical on the national security level for Israel to retain international backing to defend itself till the threat of Hamas is eradicated.
Therefore, ELNET has initiated an emergency program to bring European policymakers and opinion leaders to Israel on solidarity missions to hear first-hand testimonies and witness the carnage for themselves, and share back home the truth about they saw.
This week, ELNET hosted a pan-European delegation of 17 members of 7 different European parliaments and of the European Parliament in Israel. The delegates hailed from Greece, Croatia, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Belgium, Austria, as well as MEPs from Spain, France, Bulgaria, and Austria.
During their visit they met with the families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, including Mia Schem (21) whose footage of her injured and held by Hamas was released last week, Channah Katzir (76), Elad Katzir (47), Omer Shem Tov (21), Oded Lifshitz (83), and Yocheved Lifshitz (85) who was released the following day by Hamas.
They then visited Shura Base where hundreds of bodies of murdered men, women, and children are still held. Caravan after caravan holds the remains of people so badly mutilated or burned or dismembered that they still have not been able to be identified though more than two weeks have passed since the attack.
They then drove towards Kibbutz Kfar Aza but had to be redirected due to ongoing terrorist threats from Hamas. Instead, they drove to Kibbutz Be’eri, on the way passing the site of the Nova Festival in Re’im where over 260 people were killed. During the drive, a rocket fired from Gaza landed a few hundred meters from the delegates in an open field.
In Kibbutz Be’eri the delegates witnessed unfathomable scenes of massacre, including a kindergarten classroom whose floor was covered in bloodstains. There they were briefed by Col. (Res.) Golan Wach, Head of the Israeli National Rescue Unit. They then traveled to the city of Sderot and saw raw footage of the infiltration by Hamas.
The delegation finalized the day with a special solidarity event together with the European ambassadors to Israel from Bulgaria, Greece, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, and the Head of the EU Delegation to Israel. In his briefing at the event, ELNET-Israel CEO Emmanuel Navon reiterated that Hamas’s barbarity amounts to crimes against humanity.
On the second day, the delegation had meetings at the Knesset, including with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Chair of the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee Yuli Edelstein, and MKs Evgeny Sova, Dan Illouz, and Ariel Kallner. They also had security briefings at the Ministry of Defense Headquarters.
The delegation visited wounded civilians and soldiers and heard their stories of survival. The delegates met with founder of Mellanox Eyal Waldman whose daughter Danielle and her boyfriend were both murdered at the music festival.
They also met with IMPACT-se and Palestinian Media Watch to learn about incitement in Palestinian textbooks.
ELNET extends its gratitude to the 17 parliamentarians who chose to witness these evils and share the truth back home.