Call It October 7
5th October 2025
The Investigative Project on Terrorism.
The October 7 perpetrators recorded themselves and their victims, reveling in their savagery as they murdered 1,195 people in the most gruesome ways. It was a day of infanticide, beheading, incineration, hostage-taking, and of course rape. Not just random and intermittent rape, but gang rape, communal rape – carefully-planned, procedural, strategic rape. This dimension of October 7 has its own academic-diplomatic term: conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV).
The Dinah Project has documented Hamas’ “systematic and intentional usage of sexual violence as a weapon of war” on October 7 in a report that shows how the “complexity and modus operandi of the attacks, which seem to have occurred over three cumulative waves appear to demonstrate a significant level of planning, coordination and detailed prior knowledge of the targets selected.”
On October 7, Gazans killed children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children. To further traumatize the children, they slaughtered scores, perhaps hundreds, of pet dogs.
Everything about the day was planned for maximum cruelty. No analogues in modern history exist.
So, let’s have no more euphemisms like “the tragedy of October 7” or “the events of October 7.” Let’s dispense with the quotidian nouns and modifiers. There was nothing common about October 7. Let the date alone designate the day of infamy.
Call it simply October 7.