A chilling new video shows how quickly a music festival at a kibbutz in southern Israel transformed from a typical scene of revelry into a war zone when Hamas terrorists launched an attack on civilians on Saturday.
The video begins with the woman who recorded the video wandering through the festival as blaring techno music plays in the background as the sun rises. She smiles while hugging other festival goers.
Witnesses said the shooting began around 6 a.m. The Tribe of Nova outdoor music festival will go down as the country’s worst civilian massacre in Israeli history, with reports that 260 people have already been killed and the number is expected to rise.
The clip abruptly cuts to a moment of confusion as the crowd appears to have dispersed and the music has stopped. Security forces march through the groups of people, showing them directions and seemingly shouting at them to leave the area.
The video shows hundreds of revelers enjoying thumping techno music as a gentle dawn begins in the background
The woman who shot the video shows her face and smiles as the crowd waits for another DJ
In the next cut, there still seems to be confusion as people walk around near their cars and some can be seen driving away from the concert site.
After 47 seconds, the crack of gunfire can be heard in the distance. The woman lets out a scream, scurries into her car and quickly buckles up her seatbelt.
Sometime between these moments and the next cut, the woman is on foot again, striding through the dusty earth and crying as random gunfire approaches. The camera pans up and you see hundreds of other young people running for their lives.
There’s a short clip of the woman we saw recently smiling in tears as gunshots were heard. A quick cut shows festival-goers applying a makeshift tourniquet to another reveler’s leg as blood flows out.
In the next shot, the distraught group can be seen huddling under a tarp and crying as the gunfire is now faster and louder.
Eventually an Israeli tank arrives on the scene to provide some cover as the Hamas attack continues. According to many reports, some participants were drunk or under the influence of drugs, adding to their confusion and horror.
At this point there are some armed Israeli police officers on site. Armed only with handguns, they try to bring the young people to safety, who keep running after them due to the relentless gunfire.
At this point the video ends.
The festival’s staggering death toll became clear early Monday when Israel’s Zaka rescue service said medics had recovered at least 260 bodies.
The next image shows that the music has stopped and confusion reigns as security guards direct people away from the venue
There is no panic yet and many seem to be asking questions about what is going on
One section of the video shows concertgoers running for their lives as gunshots can be heard rattling off in the background
The video shows concertgoers cowering in the dirt as gunshots are heard
The group was protected by a group of Israeli police armed only with stabbing weapons rather than assault rifles
During the anarchy, frightened concertgoers huddled together
Festival organizers said they would help Israeli security forces locate participants who were still missing. The death toll could rise as teams continue to clear the area.
Israeli communities on both sides of the festival site were also attacked. In Saturday’s unprecedented surprise attack, Hamas gunmen kidnapped dozens of men, women and children – including the elderly and disabled – and killed scores more.
One witness, Maya Alper, told the Associated Press about the horrors the concertgoers faced.
“I can’t even explain the energy they (the militants) had, it was so clear that they didn’t see us as people,” she said. “They looked at us with pure hatred.”
Many hid for about six hours until the Israeli army showed up at the festival site.
Alper said she didn’t make a sound until she heard the sound of an Israeli tank shell. Alper, a tank instructor herself, said soldiers soon showed up to help her out of the undergrowth.
“This is not just war. “This is hell,” Alper said. “But in this hell, I still feel like we can somehow choose to act out of love and not just fear.”
Eventually, an Israeli tank showed up to provide some cover for the concertgoers
The once smiling concertgoer bursts into tears as he realizes that a place of joy has now become a war zone
An aerial view of the Supernova festival site
Abandoned cars right in front of the festival site
Fire and smoke rise from an explosion in a Palestinian apartment tower after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City just hours after the attack on the festival at the start of the Israeli counteroffensive
Officials believe Hamas has deployed a force of about 1,000 fighters to carry out the most devastating attack on Israel in decades, organizing them into specialized units.
An Israeli military spokesman said Israeli troops had armed Hamas forces at half a dozen points around Gaza more than 48 hours after the attack began.
The civilian population has already paid a heavy price for the invasion. According to Israeli media citing emergency services, around 700 people were killed in Israel, including 73 soldiers – a shocking number given the scale of recent conflicts.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 493 people, including 78 children and 41 women, were killed in the area. Thousands were injured on both sides.
Palestinian militant groups said they were holding more than 130 people kidnapped in Israel and trafficked to Gaza. Hamas’ armed wing claimed on its Telegram channel that four of them had been killed in Israeli airstrikes. This could not be independently confirmed.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip and said authorities would cut off electricity and block imports of food and fuel.
Gallant said Israel was at war with “human animals,” using the dehumanizing language both sides often use at times of rising tensions.