The images are chilling: thousands of young men and women dancing under the first light of dawn and the rhythm of the bass, when black spots appear in the sky. Festival-goers, gathered in the Negev desert, near the Gaza Strip, have no idea that Hamas terrorists are launching a large-scale offensive on Israel. They also ignore that the black dots that are visibly growing are Palestinian fighters perched on paragliders and converging in their direction.
Around 6:30 a.m., the first rockets fell on the site of the Nova Festival, an annual rave party in honor of the holiday of Sukkot, reports CNN. A few minutes later, gusts were heard and caused huge crowd movements, widely relayed on social networks.
In the aftermath of the events, the fate of thousands of festival-goers remains uncertain. Testimonies gathered indicate that Hamas terrorists were shooting at the crowd, raising fears of a high number of casualties. Certain Israeli sources, currently unverifiable, speak of 250 corpses on the site. Videos show many people being taken away by force.
The testimonies of survivors are sometimes terrifying. To the Times of Israel, a young 20-year-old participant, Noya Reuven, said the terrorists opened fire on the crowd in an indiscriminate manner. On Israeli television, another young woman, Esther, explains that five armed men shot at her car as she tried to escape. She was saved by the driver of a jeep, who was then shot dead. She escaped Hamas by pretending to be dead until the IDF arrived.
Chen, another rave party attendee, tells i24News that heavy weapons were even used against festival-goers. “We were in the middle of a rave party and suddenly we were being shot at from all sides. We escaped and managed to take refuge under a tank. The terrorists then targeted us with a rocket launcher,” he explained, still shocked.
Images of festival-goers being forcibly taken away by Hamas went around the world. A video showing a young woman, subsequently identified as a certain Noa Argamani, particularly shocked public opinion. She is taken there by force on a motorbike, despite her pleas.
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A Franco-Israeli, aged 26, could be among the victims or missing people. “Avidan T., originally from Bordeaux, was undoubtedly kidnapped in the south of Israel by Hamas while he was participating in the music festival,” wrote the LR deputy for the French constituency on X (formerly Twitter). from abroad, Meyer Habib. He was “one of the organizers of the rave party,” said the MP on BFMTV. “He sent a message around 9am yesterday morning. A message of love but also in which we felt a lot of distress. Since then they have had no news, they have visited the hospitals without finding any trace of him, he added.
The fate of a young German of Israeli origin, Shani Louk, also caused emotion on social networks. In a shocking and widely relayed video, the young woman appears in the back of a Hamas pick-up, naked, with one leg dislocated. Terrorists sit on her, and others spit on her. She appears inert, but we still don’t know if she is alive. Her mother and cousin finally recognized her, thanks to the tattoos on her legs and her dreadlocks. CNN also confirmed the identity of the young woman.
Many foreign nationals appeared to be present at this rave party. A 26-year-old British man, Jake Marlowe, is also missing. Residing in Israel for two years, he provided security for this event. “He is missing, we do not know for sure if he was taken hostage, or if he is dead or in hospital,” said a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in the United Kingdom. at the British agency PA.
