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In a horrifying turn of events, what was supposed to be an all-night outdoor party turned into a gruesome battle for survival, leaving hundreds of young people in peril.
As extremists from Hamas stormed an area where thousands of youths were celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, scenes of terror and chaos unfolded.
The music festival "Tribe of Nova" was tainted with blood.
Videos circulating on social media capture frantic individuals fleeing for their lives, some in cars, others on foot.
In one video, a young woman, seemingly abducted, screams for help as she is pulled away on a motorcycle. Nearby, a man with his hands tied behind his back.
Aerial images reveal destroyed tents and burnt cars strewn across the road, bearing witness to the brutality that transpired.
The Israeli rescue team ZAKA reported that approximately 260 bodies were removed from the music festival. Concerns are mounting that the death toll may rise as the area is still being cleared.
Dramatic Testimonies
Ortel, one of the participants at the festival, describes the harrowing moments she endured.
She recalls that the first sign that something was amiss was when sirens warning of rocket launches began blaring. However, the nightmare didn't end with the rockets, as a barrage of gunfire quickly followed.
"They cut the power, and suddenly, out of nowhere, the terrorists stormed in, firing in every direction. About 50 people arrived in vans dressed in military attire," she explains to Israeli Channel 12.
As Adam Barel explains to Haaretz, everyone at the rave party had prepared for the possibility of rocket launches in the area, but certainly not for gunfire, which came as a tremendous shock.
"I tried to take refuge in my car, but the armed men kept shooting. We started running. People were being shot. We hid," he says.
"It was like a 4-5 hour horror movie. We were running like mad," another witness recounts, with a nurse who rushed to the scene describing it as a "massacre."
"I've never seen anything like it in my life. It was a planned ambush. As people ran to the emergency exits, groups of terrorists were waiting for them and began capturing them. There were about 3,000 people at the festival, so they obviously knew. They had inside information," he adds.
Source: Associated Press/BBC/CNN
