At least 260 young men and women were killed by Hamas terrorists who ambushed a rave party in Israel’s Negev Desert, rescuers have discovered.
Volunteers from the disaster relief agency ZAKA have been searching for bodies at the site of the massacre near Kibbutz Re’im, as parents around the world desperately awaited news of their missing children.
Supernova Festival had attracted partygoers – including British, American and EU citizens – to the Negev region near the Gaza Strip. The rave began at 11pm on Friday, marking the end of Israel’s week-long Sukkot religious festival.
“We celebrated, we danced, we had freedom, love everywhere,” said Australian man Daniel Moritz, describing the hours before militants began “slaughtering” anyone in their path.
“People that we saw, most likely danced with at the party, are dead.”
Mr Moritz and friend Nadav Zik told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation how they escaped the initial gunfire by climbing through a hole in a fence to get to their car. As the pair drove away, they were blocked by about 30 Hamas militants in pick-up trucks and on motorbikes.
“Suddenly a machine gun starts firing at us full force,” Mr Moritz said.
“It was so close to us that we heard the whistles over our head.”
They said they feared for the lives of all civilians and worried the many people taken hostage from Israel could be used as “human shields” by Hamas.
“They lost all humanity, like savages,” Mr Zik said.
The first signs of violence had began around 6am Saturday, as the rave was entering its chillout phase, when rockets shot across the dawn sky.
“Everyone just started running in all directions. Nobody knew where to go,” Eliav Klein told NBC.
“My friend had to jump off a cliff that was 25 feet high as he was running away from terrorists to save his life.”
Searching for signs of life
ZAKA said it removed about 260 bodies from the festival and that number was expected to rise. It was not clear how many of those bodies were already included in Israel’s overall toll.
By Monday morning, official figures showed at least 700 people had been killed in Israel. The death toll in Gaza had risen to 400.
Anxious families, meanwhile, were having their DNA tested to help authorities identify the recovered human remains.
Waiting to give a sample at an office near Israel’s Bun Gurion airport,Anya Bonget told The Telegraph of the last time she heard from her daughter Sofia.
Ms Bonget said she heard screams in the background of their final phone call.
“Mummy, they’re killing us,” was her reply. “They’re shooting at us.”
Her daughter then hung up, but half an hour later sent a text saying she was “lucky to have the best parents in the world”.
Families also continued scanning the many TikTok and Instagram videos captured on the day of that attack, desperate for a glimpse of their children and any sign they may still be alive.
Ricarda Louk saw the video of her daughter’s naked body being paraded through the streets of Gaza but was holding on to the hope Shani, 23, had survived.
The family of another missing partygoer, British Israeli man Jake Marlowe, said they had been trying to ring his phone and were leaving him voicemails.
His mother, Lisa, told the Jewish News: “He was doing security at this rave [on Saturday] and called me at 4.30am to say all these rockets were flying over.
“Then, at about 5.30am, he texted to say, ‘signal very bad, everything OK, will keep you updated I promise you,’ and that he loves me”.
Daniel Aboudy said he had received a voice recording from Mr Marlowe, a long-time friend, at 9am on Saturday.
“It was saying ‘Things are going on around Gaza, they’re coming in from there, we’re trying to evacuate everyone, I’m on an ATV [a quad bike] and we are telling everyone to get out,” Mr Aboudy told The Jewish Chronicle.
“Even in the last moments at this event when there were signals of rockets coming over and terrorists coming in he tried to help people evacuate.
“It is a testament to his character, he would give the shirt of his back to help others.”
French Israeli man Idor Nagar said he had reason to believe his wife Celine had survived her attempted escape from the party massacre. Mr Nagar located his wife’s bullet-ridden car but it did not contain any blood.
Holding the couple’s six-month-old daughter, Mr Nagar appeared on France’s BFM-TV to ask authorities to do all they can to confirm whether his wife was captured by Hamas.
Hamas senior official Moussa Abu Marzouk said Sunday that the terror group was holding about 130 Israeli hostages, including high-ranking army officials, according to a report in the Palestinian al-Hadath news outlet.
