It was close to 6am on Saturday, October 7 when Hamas fighters opened fire on the Tribe of Nova music festival. Rescuers say at least 260 bodies were found at the site in the Negev desert, about half an hour’s drive from the border with Gaza. Videos recorded by festival-goers show the nightmare that unfolded when thousands of young people were taken off guard by the attack in the midst of the rave.
Many of them were shot at point-blank range by Hamas assailants as they ran for their lives, and tried to escape in cars or hide.
'People that wanted to run away got caught and got shot'
The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke to Tal Anavim, a 23-year-old Israeli from Yavne who was attending the Tribe of Nova festival on the night the attack took place.
It started at 6am. We saw rockets fired to Israel. After 40 minutes, we started hearing shooting from Be’eri [a kibbutz]. It was 2km from the party.
After a while, the terrorists came to us and we started running through the fields. It was an open space and we just ran for our lives. There were terrorists from everywhere.
They knew about the party, so they ambushed us. People that wanted to run away got caught and got shot. We walked for five and a half hours to the shelter, to a place where terrorists didn’t end up coming to.
The people are survivors from the party. Some of them went to other places to hide. We were there for around three hours, just until we got a bus to go to Beersheba. From Beersheba we went to our homes. I got home around 9am.
Two of my friends got shot. I have one friend who got hurt from an RPG. The rest are ok, but more and more friends are missing.
