Israeli who survived Hamas musical festival massacre reveals how the ‘merciless animals’ hunted him down for FIVE HOURS and the moment he answered a phone call from his dad to say goodbye
An Israeli man who survived Hamas’ barbaric attack on a music festival has revealed the heartbreaking phone call he made to his father when he feared for his life.
Shahar Gabay branded the terrorists who descended on the festival as ‘merciless beasts’ and said the chaos-filled moments left him saying ‘my last goodbye’ to his father.
“I was scared to death for my life … people around me were being slaughtered and just carnage,” Gabay said Fox News.
The former soldier said he endured a terrifying five-hour ordeal as he fled the scene, and was forced to run about 19 miles until he made it to safety.
Although Gabay was able to escape the ‘horror show’ event, Hamas’ brutal attack killed at least 260 people in one of the first places to be attacked as the conflict escalated on Saturday.
Shahar Gabay said he was ‘scared for my life’ when Nova music festival was attacked by Hamas terrorists on Saturday
At least 260 were killed in the massacre while many are still missing – either dead or taken hostage by the bloodthirsty militants
After Hamas fighters parachuted into the nearby area and broke through the festival borders in pickup trucks, Gabay said the event quickly went from “normal” and “really fun” to a “horror show.”
“We heard explosions and missiles and everything around us just changed in a minute,” he said.
‘Total shock. Everyone ran. Everyone screamed. Everyone didn’t know what to do. You also need to understand that there is no safe place to be in this place. There is no coverage. It’s all open fields and the missiles are within seconds of being launched at us.’
The horrific attack lasted for more than four hours, as bloodthirsty insurgents fired at revelers as they ran in every direction.
Miraculously, Gabay survived by dodging bullets in the largely flat, open space and trying to hide in various areas with his friend as they were hunted.
He says they were hiding between two containers when missiles first hit, but says they desperately ran from the scene ‘as fast as (they) could’ and jumped into an ambulance when bullets started firing.
When the ambulance got stuck, they tried to use a van, which Gabay said ‘everyone got stuck’.
In a ‘terrifying’ moment, they realized the van could not get out as it was blocked by cars, and the group knew their last resort was to escape on foot.
An Israeli soldier searches the music festival grounds on Thursday, days after at least 260 people were killed
Israeli soldiers are seen at the site of the music festival, which was about three miles from the Gaza border
Destroyed cars and personal belongings were still left scattered on the music festival grounds on October 13, six days after the attacks.
Broken glass and a variety of personal items were left at the scene
Gabay said the terrorists fired a hail of bullets all over the site, with bullet holes still visible in the windshield of a car pictured on October 13.
‘They shot directly at us. The van sent all the bullets flying and glass broke and it was terrifying at this moment… We were panicking,” he said.
“We didn’t know what to do and we just … jumped out of the van and we were on foot.”
The scenes at the music festival shocked the world, with the father of an Israeli-American reveler revealing the heartbreaking choice he made to track down her iPhone to discover how and where she lost her life.
The father, Eyal Waldman, found his daughter’s wrecked, bullet-riddled car stranded as they tried to escape the horrific Hamas attacks.
Gabay said the barrage of bullets left him ‘fearing for my life’ as he ran for more than a mile in an ‘open field with nothing to protect us’.
At the same moment, Gabay’s father called him, not realizing the danger his son was in.
‘I told him I loved him. I was panicking and I think he realized what was happening and realized I was saying my last goodbye,’ he said.
Gabay said he was a combat soldier and intended to join the conflict when he recovered from the ordeal, and he insisted that his training in the Israel Defense Force included strict guidelines on how to deal with civilians.
‘I was always taught to be people first. If we did anything even close to what they did, we would be (placed) in jail, we would be judged in the strictest way,’ he said.
‘People need to know the difference (between us and them). Hamas is no army, no country. They are just terrorists without any heart.’
As devastating attacks by Hamas continue, an Israeli soldier walks past a house destroyed by Hamas in Kibbutz Be’eri on Wednesday, October 11, 2023
‘Merkava’ main battle tanks pictured at a gathering point at an undisclosed location along the border with Gaza on October 14
The Nova music festival was one of the first venues targeted by Hamas, with the surprise attack on Saturday leading Israel to declare war on the terror group.
A blizzard of missiles rained down on the Gaza Strip in brutal retaliation in the week since, as the IDF extended its deadline for residents to flee to allow more than a million people to try to escape.
Many Palestinians are struggling to escape from areas targeted by the Israeli military as they grapple with a growing water crisis after Israel halted the flow of resources to the region.
Hamas terrorists have urged civilians to ignore the evacuation order and some are refusing to leave, with Mahmoud Shalabi – director of Medical Assistance for Palestinians – saying ‘no place is safe in Gaza’ and he hopes to ‘die with dignity’ ‘.