I agree that, if true, this is appalling.
I've worked with historians and students of the 2 world wars and I noticed a strange tendency to 'rubbish' atrocity stories from both of the wars. It's a kind of sequence: one side accuses the other of terrible atrocities (too awful to describe here) and everyone is horrified. Then scepticism starts to creep in and the stories are questioned, often resulting in a sort of blanket dismissal of them as propaganda.
Sure, there might be an element of exaggeration and propaganda in these (for example) anti-German stories but in fact many were well-documented and found to be worse than the 'folklore'. Look at what happened at Oradour-sur-Glane, or the horrific pogroms of the Nazi invasion of the USSR.
I remember it was a a kind of badge of honour for some people in that context to dismiss atrocity stories as mere propaganda but these things DO happen. People are capable of horrific sadism, especially when they perceive it as justified revenge. I think some people cannot cope with this reality - they want to believe everyone is basically good and decent. They're not.
I know these terrible things happened on October 7th and I'm shocked that anyone who claims to be a serious politician could claim otherwise.