This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

As professional terrorists in Hamas were staging a massacre of innocent Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, a "mob" of "ordinary Palestinians" joined in, delivering a horror that was "just as cruel," a new report confirms.

Videos, eyewitness accounts, and the IDF reveal the Gaza residents who followed Hamas terrorists into Israel were mostly "young men with knives, overweight dads, and at least one elderly man on crutches," confirms an investigative report from the Washington Free Beacon.

Rabble "spontaneously" joined the terrorists for an additional wave of atrocities, the report said.

IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that large numbers of Gazans who were not members of any terrorist group entered Israel and participated in the atrocities.

"They did what you say they did," he told the publication.

The actual extent of civilians' involvement in the murders of more than 1,000 Israelis isn't clear but the fact it happened has left Israelis living near Gaza convinced, "Coexistence is dead, and Gaza must be crushed," the report said.

"The second wave of Arabs who came into the country were just as cruel as the terrorists of the first wave," Eshkol Regional Council mayor Gadi Yarkoni told the publication. "We saw that it was not only Hamas who came to slaughter us. It was all the residents of Gaza, including people who worked in our kibbutzim."

That region is adjacent to the Gaza border, and while some 1,400 residents were killed immediately in the attack, hundreds more were abducted.

He was on Israel's Channel 12 recently, and said, "I don't know what's going on with our hostages and missing people. Their families are crying out, and the people of Gaza, who we once thought were good, are responsible. It’s not just Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Ordinary people from Gaza took [our citizens]."

He said the IDF now needs to "finish" the mission "so that we can live in peace."

He told the publication probably half of the estimated 3,000 Gazans in the assault were "civilians."

The Free Beacon explained, "According to a video that was posted online, Gazans used a bulldozer to tear down a section of Israel's border fence, and hundreds of unarmed men and boys—wearing T-shirts, baseball caps, sneakers, and flip-flops—crossed into the country. They came mostly on foot but also by bicycle, scooter, and motorcycle. Someone appears to have brought a donkey. Other online videos show ordinary Gazans taking selfies on and around Israeli tanks and ransacking a military base on the border. All the while, cries of 'Allahu Akbar' rang out."

Videos from communities of Be'erim, Nir Oz, and others showed "dozens of ordinary-looking Gazans looting and taking part in killings…" the report said.

A former Israeli commando, Rax Cohen, survived Hamas' attack on the Nova music festival, where hundreds were killed.

He said in the report he hid in a bush with friends for almost seven hours, and watched as "Gazan civilians," men "wearing Adidas and armed only with knives and axes," raped and murdered a woman.

"They always laughed. I can't forget how they laughed," he told the Free Beacon.

Another witness, an Israeli soldier, said he encountered "amateur terrorists," without weapons beyond a knife.

"They are not good fighters, from what we have seen. But it was their numbers and their evil. That's all. You unleash a lot of people and say, 'Do what you want and have fun. Enjoy the murder. And also loot,'" he said.

Other witness accounts cited in the report also described the "amateur" terrorists.

The report quoted one, explained, "The Hamas terrorists wore green camouflage or black uniforms and were armed with automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and hand grenades. The ordinary Gazans wore everyday clothing and came unarmed or carrying only knives, although some appeared to have taken firearms from fallen Israelis or Hamas terrorists."