JERUSALEM – At least 260 bodies have been recovered by Israeli emergency services from the desert area near the Gaza Strip where hundreds of young people were celebrating an electronic music festival early Saturday when Hamas burst in shooting.
A spokesperson for ZAKA, a volunteer group that recovers human remains after attacks and other disasters, confirmed to Israeli media that more than 260 bodies have so far been recovered from the music festival site in southern Israel. Israel, near Kibbutz Reim, near Gaza.
Videos show young Israelis dancing to trance music under a giant Buddha statue and prayer flags near dawn, just as festival-goer Eliav Klein said he saw rockets launched from Gaza, surprising everyone.
“There was a traffic jam of cars trying to escape,” Klein said of what happened during the bombing.
Then shots were heard. In the midst of the chaos, Klein and hundreds of young people began running on the dry, brown earth, out of breath and with bags in their hands, desperate to flee to safety.
The Supernova festival, held in Israel’s Negev region, had been planned for weeks.
“Everyone started running in all directions. Nobody knew where to go,” Klein said, describing the terror. He said he believed festival attendees numbered in the thousands.
“My friend had to jump from a 25-foot high cliff while fleeing from terrorists to save his life,” he added. Another friend witnessed the victims being knelt at gunpoint.
Some people at the concert appear to have been kidnapped, leaving their loved ones unsure of their fate. There were also American and British attendees in the crowd, according to media accounts from relatives and Israeli officials.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, told NBC News that there were “some” Americans at the festival.
Noa Argamani, a 25-year-old festival attendee, was there with her boyfriend Avinatan Or. Tragically, both appear to have been kidnapped by Hamas soldiers. She is seen on video asking for mercy while being taken hostage. In the same video, her boyfriend is pinned down by another group of militants and looks helplessly at Noa as they drag her away.
2023-10-08 21:09:28
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