US President Donald Trump will reportedly watch a film from the October 7 massacre for the first time, Ynet reported on Monday.
The US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, watched the film during his visit to Israel last week and said that Trump "must watch it himself" to see with his own eyes what happened on October 7.
According to sources who are familiar with the details, Witkoff was shown the film by the IDF spokesman and was left "shocked and appalled." An appeal was made shortly after to the Israeli Embassy in DC and the IDF Spokesperson's Unit to shorten the film to show Trump. The original length of the film is 47 minutes.
Trump will watch roughly 20 to 30 minutes of it, at most, and will be shown the film by his aids.
Trump is expected to watch the film on Monday or Tuesday, most likely before his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who landed in Washington DC on Sunday.
Hamas atrocities documented digitally
Shortly after the October 7 Hamas massacre on Israel’s southern border, it became clear quite quickly that it was the first event of its kind that was almost wholly documented digitally and that if it was not properly and swiftly organized and preserved for historical research, it would be destined to disappear.
Recognizing the transient and changeable nature of this digital media, the National Library of Israel launched a project of collaborative leadership working together in partnership with other institutions and dozens of collection efforts to serve as a central repository for all existing documentation of these events: texts, photos, audio, and video.
Judith Sudilovsky contributed to this article.