[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
Of all the 6,000 Hamas terrorists who smashed into Israel on October 7, 2023, one who remains in the memory for the special fiendishness of his behavior was Mahmoud Afana, who after having murdered to his heart’s content, called his parents to announce excitedly to them that “I’ve killed ten Jews.” Not Israelis. Jews. And what’s more, he also sent them — a thoughtful son — videos on WhatsApp of the corpses. For their delectation. For them to be proud of their son. And they were clearly very proud. Now, 700 days later, Mahmoud Afana has been dispatched by an Israeli airstrike to the Mohammedan heaven for “martyrs,” where he will be serviced in perpetuity by 72 dark-eyed houris.
More on the death of Mahmoud Afana can be found here: “Terrorist who boasted of murdering ten Israelis on Oct. 7 killed in IDF strike – report,” Jerusalem Post, September 6, 2025:
Mahmoud Afana, a Gazan terrorist who boasted of murdering ten Israelis on October 7, was killed in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah on Thursday, Israeli media reported on Saturday, citing Palestinian reports.
In the chilling conversation, Afana, a member of Hamas’s Nukhba forces, repeatedly bragged about the murders, with the clip revealed two and a half weeks after the massacre during a discussion at the UN Security Council, Ynet reported.
“I’m talking to you from a Jewish woman’s phone. I killed her and her husband. I killed ten with my own hands,” he told his father….
“Open your WhatsApp and look at all the killed [Israelis]. Look at how many I killed with my own hands, your son killed Jews!” he was heard in the recording.
The father was heard crying with joy as the terrorist expressed his intent to do a video call so his dad could see the extent of the massacre committed.
What shall we say of Mahmoud Afana, so proud of his murders, so eager to share with his parents the glad news — “look at how many I killed with my own hands, your son killed Jews!”? There is nothing to say. Or rather, it was the IDF missile that struck the building in Deir al-Balah where Afana was staying, and caused it to collapse on top of him, that was the perfect riposte to his ghastly boast; the fatal projectile said all that needed to be said.
And then there was Mahmoud Afana’s father, who was “crying with joy” when he learned that he would be able to see the corpses — all ten of them, I assume — of the Israelis his son had murdered, and not only that, but Afana with his cell phone camera could pan across the entire scene, with the bodies of other Israelis murdered by Afana’s fellows. He will be remembered not just as the father of a monster, but as a monster himself. Should Afana’s father now be walking around in Gaza, or should the IDF do the moral thing, and make him join his son, now “martyred,” in the Mohammedan paradise where each will have 72 virgins to provide permanent pleasure?
