Moment Fox News reporter Trey Yingst ducks for cover as gunfire breaks out while Israeli IDF capture Palestinian terrorist
A Palestinian terrorist opened fire Thursday on a group of journalists visiting the site of a music festival in Israel where 260 people were killed over the weekend, forcing the reporters to disperse as the Israeli army returned fire on the man.
The attacker was later arrested, blindfolded and stripped down to his underwear as he was marched away by soldiers.
The dramatic moment was captured by a Fox News crew, who joined others on the tour of the Supernova festival site.
Hamas attacked the gathering at around 06:30 on Saturday, crossing from Gaza and launching their attack.
Trey Yingst, a correspondent with Fox News, was among those shown on the site.
Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst was taken with other journalists to the site of a music festival on the Gaza border. The reporters were there when shots were fired
An aerial photo shows the site of the weekend attack on the Supernova desert music festival
Israeli soldiers are seen at the site of the music festival on Thursday
“We heard a gunshot and they were yelling at people to get out of the area,” said Yingst, who started running with his crew.
His group crouched on the floor, while other journalists can be seen by a wall.
Israeli soldiers ran towards the sound of the gunshot, which came from the eucalyptus grove on the edge of the camp site.
‘Lie flat. Lay down. Lie completely flat,’ says Yingst, while others run away.
Yingst continued: ‘You can see things are very tense here. Two gunshots and now they have someone on the ground.
‘Very tense at the moment as apparently the soldiers have arrested a Palestinian man and he is in handcuffs and they have blindfolded him and they are taking him away. You can see here they are leading him away.’
He added the scene “gives you a sense of how unpredictable it all is.”
‘They don’t know where people are hiding. They could still be in the tree lines here near the Gaza border.’
Yingst said a senior commander later told him the detained man was a Palestinian militant who crossed into Israel from Gaza, or who may have remained in the area after Saturday’s attack.
The Palestinian gunman is taken away on Thursday after he opened fire on the music festival grounds
IDF soldiers are seen overpowering the Palestinian man on Thursday
An Israeli soldier searches the music festival grounds on Thursday
The area around the festival site remains tense, five days later
As the full extent of the weekend’s atrocities came into focus, Israel’s military was ramping up preparations for a ground invasion, and Hamas continued to launch rockets into Israel.
“Now is the time for war,” Israel’s military chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said as his country assembled tanks near the Gaza Strip.
Seeking support for its response, Israel’s government showed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO defense ministers graphic images of children and civilians they said Hamas killed in a weekend rampage in Israel.
Blinken said they showed a baby ‘riddled with bullets’, decapitated soldiers and burned young people in their cars.
“This is simply depravity in the worst possible way,” he said. “It really goes beyond anything we can comprehend.”
Israel vowed to hit back for the attack – the deadliest by Palestinian militants in Israeli history.
An armed Palestinian militant leads a man during the Supernova music festival
An armed Palestinian militant is seen walking around the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev desert in southern Israel.
Sitting on the back of a terrorist’s motorcycle, her outstretched arms pointing at her helpless boyfriend, student Noa Argamani pleads for her life
Aftermath: Burned out and abandoned cars where revelers tried to escape the attack
At least 260 were killed in the massacre while many are still missing – either dead or taken hostage by the bloodthirsty militants
Like others around the world, Blinken urged Israel to show restraint, but he also reiterated America’s support, saying: ‘We will always be there by your side.’
He was due to meet King Abdullah and Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in Jordan on Friday as part of a Middle East tour aimed at stemming the tide of war.
America’s top diplomat, Blinken, planned to visit key American allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – some with influence over Hamas, an Islamic group backed by Iran.
Halevi said lessons would be drawn from the security failures around Gaza that made the attack possible.
“We will learn, investigate, but now is the time for war,” he said.
The US military is putting no conditions on its security assistance to Israel, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, adding that Washington expects Israel’s military to “do the right things” to prosecute its war against Hamas.
Austin was to be in Israel on Friday and planned to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hamas called on Palestinians to rise up on Friday in protest against Israel’s bombardment of the enclave, urging Palestinians to march on East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque and join Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank. clash.
Public broadcaster Kan said the Israeli death toll had risen to more than 1,300.
The US death toll has risen to 27.
Scores of Israeli and foreign hostages were taken back to Gaza; Israel said it had identified 97 of them.
Israel has so far responded by placing Gaza, home to 2.3 million people, under siege and launching a bombing campaign that has destroyed entire neighborhoods.
Gaza authorities said more than 1,500 Palestinians were killed.