“Fire and Rescue Services, how can I help?”

“I’m in Sderot, near the library …, many dead. Hamas came in here and shot everyone at the bus stop by the library. Hurry, there are people here …, many people dead. They’re driving around in their vehicles shooting.”

This was one of the calls that reached the Fire and Rescue Services hotline in the first hours of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught on Israel, revealed here for the first time.

That morning, the calls flooding the hotline were unlike anything the operators had ever handled.

Not a house fire, not a car accident. These were emergency pleas from residents of the northwestern Negev, from Supernova festivalgoers, from terrified people begging for help in their last minutes.

Calls were cut off suddenly. Sometimes by a burst of gu

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