A 24-year-old Israeli woman recounted the horrors of the Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival last weekend and pleaded with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to help free her captive friends.
Blinken met the woman as he toured a donation center on his trip to Israel, where he stood side by side with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to show U.S. support for its longtime ally.
The trip came five days after an attack by the Palestinian terror group Hamas against Israel in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 150 were taken hostage.
Blinken spoke to a young woman who attended a desert music rave that was attacked by terrorists.
She told him: “We have lost many of our friends, close friends, many family members.” We know that many people have been kidnapped and are now in Gaza. We really experienced horror.
“I just think – I’m 24. And I never imagined something like this would ever happen at a dance, at a music festival.” “We celebrated love and danced,” she said, laughing nervously as she described the event while people sang in the background.
She added: “And it was unbelievable.” And then the rockets started and gunshots started everywhere.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had an emotional encounter with a 24-year-old Israeli woman who recounted the horrors of the Israeli music festival where Hamas militants gunned down attendees. She asked for help to bring her kidnapped friends home from captivity
“We managed to escape.” But there were many friends who didn’t. And there are many friends who are now held captive in Gaza,” she said as a crowd gathered around her.
She described both the immediate horror and emotional trauma of those who experienced the Hamas attack on the techno festival, in which more than 260 people were murdered and others were still missing.
“We were saved by a miracle. “But there are friends we love who weren’t,” she told the top U.S. diplomat, who is Jewish and whose family lost several members in the Holocaust.
“Thank you for being here,” she told him. “It’s really important.” If there is any way to help, our friends and family who are now in Gaza are our top priority. “We are strong here, we are powerful here,” she told him.
“We feel that,” Blinken tried to calm her down before the two hugged.
“We want to bring her home. “And I’m sorry you’re going through this,” Blinken said to the woman, who was with her father and boyfriend
She described the horror of the scene at the music festival where friends and family were killed
A picture taken on October 10, 2023 shows the deserted site of the weekend attack by Palestinian militants on the Supernova desert music festival near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev Desert of southern Israel
The White House says it has no information about hostages seized by Hamas
“We’re thinking about her and trying to do everything we can.” We want to bring her home. And I’m sorry you have to go through this.
“Thank you so much for being here and talking to us. “It means a lot to me,” she told him.
He then explained to her the importance of sharing her trauma publicly.
“I admire your strength and telling your story makes a big difference.” The world needs to hear this.
They spoke as Blinken toured a facility where donations are pouring into Tel Aviv to provide aid to victims of the terror attack.
The encounter came after the White House said it had extremely limited information about the fate of hostages seized from militants in the Gaza Strip during the terror attack.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that of 17 missing Americans, fewer than a handful of Americans were being held captive.
He said the US had sent reconstruction experts to advise and work with the Israelis. But he said the U.S. did not know where the hostages were, whether they were groups or individuals or whether they had been moved. He said no “proof of life” had been presented.
In his earlier appearance with Netanyahu, Blinken said: “I stand before you not only as Secretary of State of the United States, but also as a Jew.” He recounted how grandfather Maurice Blinken fled pogroms in Russia and how his stepfather Samuel Pizar survived concentration camps.