# The October 8 Gaza cars > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The October 8 Gaza cars," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-october-8-gaza-cars/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The account John Kiriakou has passed on from a Greek journalist friend, an investigative reporter for a major Athens newspaper who reached the Gaza envelope on October 8, 2023, one day after the Hamas attack, and saw a line of Israeli cars with their occupants still dead inside and *"giant rocket holes in the roofs of the cars,"* damage inconsistent with the ground assault the Israeli government has said killed them. Kiriakou uses the anecdote as an example of a story he does not have to speculate about, his friend was on the ground with an IDF handler who refused to explain what had happened.* - **Date:** October 8, 2023 - **Witness (per Kiriakou):** A Greek journalist and personal friend, employed by *"one of the big investigative newspapers"* in Athens - **Access:** Entry into Gaza with an IDF handler, as required - **What he saw:** A line of Israeli cars along the road, occupants still dead inside, and *"giant rocket holes in the roofs of the cars"* - **IDF handler's answer:** *"Don't worry about that. Ask questions when we get to Gaza"*, the questions were then never answered - **Kiriakou's framing:** Compared to the [Highway of Death](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/highway-of-death) of the first Gulf War; *"a lot that just doesn''t stand up to scrutiny"* **The October 8 Gaza cars** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account, offered on the *American Exception* podcast, of what a Greek investigative journalist friend saw on the road into the Gaza envelope the day after the [October 7](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/october-7-attack) attack, a scene Kiriakou reads against the official Israeli story that the occupants were killed by Hamas ground forces. ## The Greek journalist's account Kiriakou frames the source. *"I have a friend who is a Greek journalist at one of the big investigative newspapers in Athens, and he told me that he got to Gaza on October 8. And of course, you know, you have to go in with an IDF handler. But he said going into Gaza that day, there was a line of cars still with dead Israelis inside them. But with giant rocket holes in the roofs of the cars."*[1][2] *"And he said he asked his handler, 'What happened here?' And he said the IDF handler said, 'Don't worry about that. Ask questions when we get to Gaza.' They wouldn't even answer the questions."*[2] ## The Highway of Death comparison Aaron Good put the scene against the Highway of Death of the first Gulf War, and Kiriakou accepted the comparison and volunteered his own recollection: *"I went to the highway of death in the days after it took place. And you know, at the time, we thought this was an act of genius. It was a traditional flanking manoeuvre ordered by General Schwarzkopf, and we took the Iraqis by surprise, and blah blah blah. That wasn't it at all. It was a crime against humanity."*[3][4] ## See also - [October 7 attack](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/october-7-attack) - [Highway of Death](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/highway-of-death) ## Sources 1. Israel vs the CIA – John Kiriakou (AE260) (2026-07-31), at 07:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6hUktZNut8&t=439s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-31-american-exception-israel-vs-the-cia-ae260/ 2. Israel vs the CIA – John Kiriakou (AE260) (2026-07-31), at 07:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6hUktZNut8&t=471s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-31-american-exception-israel-vs-the-cia-ae260/ 3. Israel vs the CIA – John Kiriakou (AE260) (2026-07-31), at 08:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6hUktZNut8&t=502s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-31-american-exception-israel-vs-the-cia-ae260/ 4. Israel vs the CIA – John Kiriakou (AE260) (2026-07-31), at 08:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6hUktZNut8&t=534s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-31-american-exception-israel-vs-the-cia-ae260/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-october-8-gaza-cars/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt