Israeli survivors remember the horror of the 260 dead at the Hamas music event, calling it "the worst place you could possibly be."

 Israeli survivors remember the horror of the 260 dead at the Hamas music event, calling it "the worst place you could possibly be."

On October 9, 2023, participants in a demonstration of support for Israel organised by Jewish Youth, Danish Zionist Federation, KU, and DSU take place at Israels Plads in Copenhagen.

A large group of young men and women gathered under the stars in southern Israel, close to the Gaza border, to enjoy a getaway from reality. According to AP, thousands of partygoers, including old and new acquaintances, gathered on a large field to dance wildly while being carried away by the pounding bass-heavy tunes.

Maya Alper was one of them, and she was at the back of the pub with volunteers who were concerned about the environment. They meticulously picked up garbage and gave free vodka shots to anyone who had reused their cups. The peace was then disturbed by air raid sirens slicing through the ethereal trap music shortly after 6 a.m., as the light-blue dawn started to break and the headline DJ joined the stage.

Alper, who was 25 years old, got into her car quickly and drove off toward the main road. However, she encountered upset festival goers as she approached the crossing. According to AP, they were pleading with vehicles to turn around hurriedly, their expressions showing astonishment and panic. Then there was a sound. Firecrackers? Just in front of her, frightened people were stumbling along the road. They left pools of blood on the ground. Gunshots.

The attack that took place on Saturday at the outdoor Tribe of Nova music festival is now recognized as the most horrific incident involving a civilian in Israeli history. At least 260 people have died as a result of it, which is shocking, and untold numbers of festival-goers have been held hostage as a result.

Dozens of Hamas militants entered Israel from Gaza through a breach in the strongly reinforced separation fence to commit this heinous act.

About 3,500 young Israelis had gathered for a night of upbeat electronic music to commemorate the Jewish festival of Sukkot when they were shot at randomly. Some attendees were under the influence of drink or drugs, which added to their confusion and dread and added to the mayhem and terror.

The AP spoke with survivors and looked over a dozen films that had been used to document the incident. The sad incident took place in a barren field just outside of Kibbutz Re'im, some 3.3 miles (5.3 kilometers) from the defensive wall that separates southern Israel from Gaza.

"We were hiding and sprinting, hiding and running, in an open field — the worst area you could possibly be in that situation," Tel Aviv resident Arik Nani, who attended the party to celebrate his 26th birthday, told AP. "This is a trauma like I could never imagine for a country where everyone in these circles knows everyone."

Eyewitnesses at the festival described a terrifying image as missiles continued to fall from the sky. In addition to intentionally positioning themselves near bomb shelters, militants attacked people trying to find protection at the event venue. The attackers rode in on trucks and on motorbikes, outfitted in body armor and armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles, among other lethal weapons.

Armed attackers were seen breaching the panicked crowd in disturbing video footage obtained by Israeli first responders and published on the social media site Telegram. They mercilessly fired with automatic firearms, killing festival-goers who were running for their lives. Tragically, many victims were shot in the back while frantically trying to flee the mayhem.

Israeli towns located on either side of the festival grounds were attacked during the incident on Saturday. Hamas militants targeted these villages and kidnapped a large number of adults, juveniles, and children, as well as elderly and crippled people. Numerous innocent lives were lost in this unusual and stunning surprise attack, and the level of brutality was horrifying.

By Monday, it was increasingly clear how terrible the festival catastrophe had been. Paramedics have already removed at least 260 dead from the area, according to Zaka, Israel's emergency service.

The festival's organizers were actively coordinating with Israeli security services in the meanwhile to help find attendees who were still missing. As teams work to clean the area and determine the full extent of the calamity, the sobering death toll may regrettably rise even higher.

Alper reacted quickly in the face of the escalating chaos, removing a few confused festival-goers from the chaotic roadway and driving in the opposite direction. One of them stated his panicked worry, saying that he had become separated from his wife in the midst of the chaos. Alper had to step in to stop him from trying to get out of the car in his desperate search for his missing wife.

"We are all going to die." The dance floor where Alper had spent the previous joyful hours changed into a large cloud of black smoke as she viewed it from the rearview mirror, according to AP.

Those festivalgoers who made it to the road and parking area where their cars were parked were in a terrible predicament because they were caught in a traffic congestion and were at risk from militants who were firing on the people inside the cars.

The AP examined drone footage of the aftermath, which shows a scene of complete pandemonium with rows of cars in disorder as drivers hurriedly tried to flee. Some of the cars were on fire and on their sides, while others had evident bullet holes in their shattered windows.

Alper and her new friends jumped out of the vehicle and ran through open fields into a cluster of shrubs when a man yelled, "God is great!" from just a few meters away.

Alper felt a bullet flying dangerously close to her left ear, and her heart began to rush. She took the decision to dive into a tangle of shrubs in a split-second after realizing the gunmen were probably going to catch up to her car. She struggled to see what was going on while she was hidden among the thorns. She recalled seeing a terrifying image from her covert vantage point: one of her consumers, the young woman who had lost her friend, screamed in terror and collapsed to the ground, as a gunman leaned over her lifeless form and grinned menacingly.

"I even struggle to describe the militants' vigor. It was so obvious that they didn't see us as beings of humanity, she remarked. "They regarded us with pure, unadulterated hatred."

According to the AP, recordings show the shooters executing wounded people at close range while crouching on the ground. Surprisingly, some of the extremists went so far as to raid the victims' vehicles and inspect the goods inside, stealing backpacks and purses.

Alper and other people's locations are currently unknown, and sources indicate that Hamas is in charge of more than 100 Israeli hostages. The group issued a grim threat on Monday, stating that if the Israeli force carried out unannounced bombings in Palestinian territories, they would start a methodical killing of these detainees.

Alper and many other festival-goers endured more than six agonizing hours of this terrifying ordeal without any assistance or involvement from the Israeli military. They ran for cover in terror as Hamas militants hurled grenades and fired automatic weapons without regard for target, according to the AP.

Alper was forced into such a twisted position within the bush that her limbs became so knotted that she was unable to move her toes. Throughout her ordeal, she overheard militants speaking Arabic in close proximity to where she was hiding. Alper, a devoted practitioner of yoga, claimed that during meditation, she concentrated on her breathing, "breathing and praying in every way I knew possible."

She remarked, "I breathed it out every time I thought of anger, or dread, or revenge." "I sought to think of what I was grateful for—the plant it hid me so well that even birds settled on it, the birds that were still singing, the sky which had been so blue."

Alper's experience as an Israeli army tank instructor came into play, and she was able to finally exhale when she heard a different kind of explosion—the characteristic sound of an Israeli army tank shell. She cried out for help in answer, and soon troops were at her side, carefully removing her from the tangle. She tragically came into one of her pals' dead bodies in the midst of the tragedy. Alper assumed that Hamas terrorists had kidnapped the young woman from her car who she had earlier witnessed collapse and brought her into Gaza because she was nowhere to be seen.

The Israeli soldiers encountered Alper while en route to engage Hamas fighters in the severely damaged kibbutz of Be'eri near the Gaza border. They were faced with a confusing situation and were unsure of how to proceed.

A pickup truck traveling with Israeli citizens of Palestinian descent pulled up to the scene at this same moment. These people, who are from the Bedouin community of Rahat, were actively looking for Israeli survivors by helping to rescue the area. They offered Alper their assistance, helped her get into their car, and then transported her to the police station. She fell into her father's arms there, overcome with emotion and crying as she did so.

"This is more than a conflict. This is awful, remarked Alper. But even in that inferno, I believe that we may make a decision to act out of love rather than merely fear.