Several fights erupted outside the screening of a film showing the Hamas attacks on Israel in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
The film, Bearing Witness, is a compilation of extremely graphic raw footage shot during the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel, with some of the material reportedly coming from cameras worn by Hamas gunmen as they carried out massacres. The 43-minute movie was shown at L.A.’s Museum of Tolerance on Wednesday night amid a heavy police presence both inside and around the museum to maintain security.
Wonder Woman actress and former IDF service member Gal Gadot was rumored to have been involved in arranging the screening, but was not present at the event itself, according to The Hollywood Reporter, though her Israeli film producer husband Jaron Varsano was there.
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Dozens of people assembled outside the museum during the screening and, at some point, the situation turned violent, according to ABC 7. The station said “multiple” fights erupted and several people were pepper-sprayed as police formed a skirmish line in an attempt to get the situation under control.
The Los Angeles Times reported that at least one person was detained by law enforcement. The newspaper added that the fighting took place in a gas station across the road from the museum and that a woman was punched in the face by a man who then fled as police attempted to stop the violence. A photographer for the Times had his glasses broken, the report added.
“We cannot allow current worldwide tension to devolve into this unacceptable violence in our city,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a post on X about the fights. “This is a time of immense pain and distress for thousands of Angelenos. We must stand together.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the location of the screening was leaked by a media outlet before the event took place, leading to threats being made against the museum in the days before the film was shown. The outlet said that when the movie was screened, some people wept and others walked out before it was finished, unable to continue watching the carnage. The film reportedly contains footage of Israelis being shot dead and beheaded with shovels, as well as audio of calls from Hamas militants to relatives in Gaza boasting about what they were doing.
The IDF held a screening of the film for international journalists at a Tel Aviv military base last month. Israeli officials at the time said it was necessary to show the footage to counter “Hamas lies” about the Oct. 7 attacks, which they described as a “Holocaust denial-like phenomenon.”
More than 1,400 people in Israel were killed in the Hamas rampage, according to Israeli figures. In response, Israel has unleashed an unprecedented wave of strikes in Gaza. The Hamas-run health ministry says that more than 10,500 Palestinians have been killed in the besieged enclave as a result of Israeli operations.
Read it at ABC 7
