Slaughtered as they ran for help … by the men they hoped would save them: Hamas gunmen disguised themselves as police – and shot Nova revelers who went to them for protection
- Maya P. and her friend were among those who scrambled to their cars to flee the site
- Israel Palestine news LIVE: IDF continues to pound Gaza with airstrikes as troops massed on border ‘prepare to carry out mission’
A woman who escaped the Nova festival attack described Hamas gunmen disguised as police killing people as they ran for help.
Maya P. (29) escaped death several times on Saturday morning when members of the militant group descended on the electronic music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, killing at least 260 people and taking prisoners back to Gaza.
Maya and her friend were among those who scrambled to their cars to flee the site, but it quickly became clear that the only road to safety was blocked on both sides by terrorist blockades.
Speaking from Israel, Maya, who was a bouncer at the festival, told Bild that the terrorists who set up the blockades were disguised as police officers and soldiers.
“People ran into them hoping to be saved, and then they were executed,” Maya said, crying.
A group that fled the scene on Saturday during an attack at the electronic music festival near Kibbutz Re’im
A Hamas member holding a gun at the electronic music festival near Kibbutz Re’im
The cars became a death trap for many of the festival-goers, with militants using assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades to shoot at them.
Maya and her boyfriend briefly sought shelter in a roadside bunker with nearly 50 others.
But their instincts told them it wasn’t safe there.
As the gunfire continued, they made what would prove to be a life-changing decision and ran across the road and into the desert.
Maya told of the run up to the day of horror Image that she ‘checked the IDs and looked each participant in the eye as they entered’.
“There were so many children there, born in 2003, 2004, 2005,” Maya said.
At 6am her shift was over and she changed into a pair of more comfortable dance trainers.
“It might have saved my life,” she remarked, as they helped her escape the terror.
Thousands of young people attended the nature party, which became one of the first targets of Palestinian gunmen who breached Gaza’s border fence early Saturday under the cover of massive rocket fire from Gaza.
Festival-goers could be seen dancing in the desert at dawn on Saturday, completely unaware that within minutes members of the Hamas militant group would descend from the sky and inflict terror.
At 06:30 the festival-goers heard rockets flying through the sky.
A photo taken on October 10, 2023 shows the deserted site of the weekend attack on the Supernova desert music festival by Palestinian militants near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev desert in southern Israel.
Since rocket alarms are part of everyday life for Israelis, they did not react, as they did not immediately recognize the drama that was about to unfold.
Drone footage taken in the wake of the attack in the early hours of Saturday showed cars left on the side of the road, many destroyed or blocked by bullet wounds.
The war has already claimed at least 2,200 lives on both sides and is expected to escalate.