Direct proof of use
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry's June 2024 detailed findings directly document Hamas militants throwing grenades into public shelters during the October 7, 2023 assault on southern Israel. In the western Re'im shelter, the Commission described repeated grenade attacks and cited survivor testimony that the munitions included stun or shock grenades and fragmentation grenades. In the Alumim shelter, the Commission cited a survivor who said militants threw fragmentation grenades into the shelter.
Human Rights Watch separately reported that Hamas-led Palestinian armed groups hurled grenades and shot into shelters across southern Israel during the October 7 assault. The Times of Israel reported dashcam footage from a shelter near Re'im in which Hamas attackers threw multiple grenades into a rocket shelter while civilians hid inside.
Sources: UN Commission October 7 Findings, Human Rights Watch October 7 Report, Times of Israel Re'im Grenade Video
Timeline
On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led forces crossed from Gaza into southern Israel. The Commission's reconstruction of shelter attacks places grenade use at several public shelters used by civilians fleeing the Supernova music festival and nearby areas, including the western Re'im shelter, the eastern Re'im shelter, the Alumim shelter, a shelter outside Be'eri, and the Zikim beach shelter.
The clearest fragmentation-grenade identification comes from the Commission's shelter findings. It recorded survivor accounts of fragmentation grenades at the western Re'im shelter, fragmentation grenades at the Alumim shelter, and a fragmentation-grenade explosion at the Zikim beach shelter. The record supports use of the weapon class during the opening assault, but it does not identify a specific national grenade model.
Sources: UN Commission October 7 Findings
Operational role
In this conflict, fragmentation hand grenades appear as close-quarters anti-personnel weapons used by Hamas and Gaza-based armed groups during assaults on confined shelters and civilian hiding places. The documented pattern was short-range attack into enclosed or semi-enclosed spaces, often combined with small-arms fire and, in some shelter incidents, rocket-propelled grenades.
The same broader grenade category also appeared in drone-delivered form during the opening assault. Defense One, citing DroneSec reporting, said Hamas used small commercial drones to drop grenades on tanks, ambulances, border posts, and communications towers after launching the October 7 cross-border attack. That reporting supports grenade fielding by Hamas in the conflict, while the shelter evidence supplies the clearest direct support for fragmentation hand-grenade use.
Sources: UN Commission October 7 Findings, Human Rights Watch October 7 Report, Defense One Gaza Drone War
