Israeli music festival: 260 dead found at scene where attendees ran amid gunfire
The Supernova event, which took place in the southern Israeli desert to coincide with the Jewish festival of Sukkot, had been eagerly anticipated for weeks by music fans.
Before it started, the event’s organizers posted on social media that “the time has come when the whole family is about to get together again.” “And what fun it is going to be!”
Only a few hours later, after Palestinian militants stormed the event and started shooting as part of a massive surprise attack on Israel, their social media pages are suddenly overrun with anxious people looking for loved ones.
According to rescue organization Zaka, more than 260 bodies have reportedly been found on the festival grounds.
Ortel, one of the partygoers, claimed that the first indication that something was awry came when a rocket siren went off at around daybreak. Witnesses reported hearing gunshots shortly after the missiles.
“They turned off the electricity and suddenly out of nowhere they [militants] come inside with gunfire, opening fire in every direction,” she told Channel 12 in Israel.
“Fifty terrorists arrived in vans, dressed in military uniforms,” she stated.
“They began to fire spurts, and at that point everyone got out of their cars and began to flee. I hid behind a bush like this when they simply began to spray everyone. I witnessed hordes of injured individuals being flung about.
Gilad Karplus, a masseuse at the festival, told the BBC that he witnessed people being shot and that he and his friends were able to flee into the fields in a car.
“Then they [the militants] started firing sniper rifles on us from different places and also heavy artillery.”
Mr. Karplus, who once worked for the Israel Defense Forces, claimed he and his pals were shot at from motorcycles and suffered injuries, but they were able to flee and hide in a building.
“We heard them [the gunmen] going from door to door, and in a few hours they could have found us, but they didn’t know we were there.”
When Israeli police and troops finally showed up, Mr. Karplus was transported to the hospital for treatment.
The festival’s location, which included three stages, camping space, a bar area, and a food area, was close to Kibbutz Re’im in the Negev desert. The Gaza Strip, from which Hamas fighters crossed before dawn to begin their attack, was not far away. They broke into towns and villages and kidnapped dozens of people.
Esther Borochov told Reuters that when her car was rammed, she was moving away. A young man driving another car approached her and motioned for her to get in. She did, but the man was afterwards shot dead in the head. Esther claimed that she pretended to be dead until Israeli soldiers finally came to her aid.
“I couldn’t move my legs,” she admitted to Reuters from the hospital. “Soldiers came and took us away to the bushes.”
Like Ortel, many festival-goers spent hours hiding in surrounding shrubs and fruit orchards in the hopes that the military would show up and rescue them.
“I put the phone on mute mode, and then I started crawling through an orange grove,” Ortel recalled. “Live fire was whistling above me.”
How Gili Yoskovich hid in a pomelo orchard was revealed to the BBC. “They were firing while moving from tree to tree. I noticed that everyone was dying. I spoke very little. I remained silent and took no action.
After three hours, she finally overheard some Israeli soldier voices and made the decision to flee for her life.
Another witness described it as “four and a half hours of a horror movie… We ran like crazy, it was just crazy,” according to Channel 12.
Yaniv, a medical emergency responder who was dispatched to the party, described it as a “massacre.” According to him, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, he told state broadcaster Kan News. An ambush was planned. Terrorist squads were waiting for victims to evacuate through the emergency exits when they arrived, and they immediately started killing them.
“There were 3,000 attendees, so they must have known. They possessed intelligence data.
The lost loved ones’ friends and family members are now frantically searching for them.
German tourist Shani Louk is among those missing; Shani’s mother thinks she was abducted. Noa Argamani, a 25-year-old lady, is thought to have been held prisoner at the festival, according to her family and friends.
Amit Parpara, Noa’s friend, told the BBC that he was texting her while she was hiding.
“Around 8:30 was the last message that I got from her,” he stated. Later, Amit came across a video on social media that appeared to depict her being kidnapped. “[It] depicts her being whisked away from her boyfriend while riding a motorcycle. Her horror spreading to the Gaza Strip is evident.
Hersh Golberg-Polin, an American-Israeli who is 23 years old, was there after his birthday, and his parents are also hunting for him. They informed the Jerusalem Post that on Saturday morning, he left them two brief messages that said, “I love you” and “I’m sorry.”
The most recent statistics reported by local media indicate that since the attack started, at least 700 Israelis have died.
Israeli forces and Palestinian insurgents are still engaged in combat, and Israel has begun a wave of airstrikes on Gaza. According to Palestinian sources, the strikes have resulted in at least 493 deaths.
Why did Hamas carry out its most recent assault?
Although the militants’ strike on October 7 was unexpected, it happened at a time when Israeli-Palestinian tensions were at an all-time high.
The fact that this year has been the deadliest on record for Palestinians living in the West Bank that is occupied by Israel may have inspired Hamas to launch a major attack against Israel.
Hamas may have also hoped to defeat Israel in a huge media battle in order to get more support from Palestinians in general.
It is believed that the fact that it has seized so many Israeli captives is an attempt to put pressure on Israel to release some of the 4,500 or so Palestinians believed to be detained there. This is a sensitive subject for all Palestinians.
Although Iran’s Supreme Leader has refuted claims that his country was involved, there is also conjecture that the strike was planned by Iran, Israel’s bitter adversary.
Along with Hamas, Iran is adamantly opposed to the possibility of a historic peace agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
This may be prevented if the Arab world becomes widely incensed by Israel’s military reaction to the Hamas strikes.
How the shocking Hamas strike happened
Who are the Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas?