A devastated father has shared a harrowing phone call from his daughter during the Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival that slaughtered at least 260 people and took others hostage.
In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Ilan Regev recounted the heartbreaking call he received from his daughter Maya, 21, when she and her brother Itay, 18, were kidnapped by Hamas.
“Dad, they shot me, they shot me!” Maya said in a call to her father on October 7 amid the shooting. “He’s killing us, Dad, he’s killing us.”
Ilan was heard telling Maya to tell her her location and find a place to hide, saying, “I’m coming.”
Ilan jumped into his car from his home in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, and sped south toward the festival site, where he was banned from entering.
A devastated father has shared a harrowing phone call from his daughter during the Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival that slaughtered at least 260 people and took others hostage
In the interview, Ilan is seen breaking down as he is once again overcome with emotion, listening to his daughter’s heartbreaking cries and pleas
In the interview, Ilan is seen breaking down as he is once again overcome with emotion, listening to his daughter’s heartbreaking cries and pleas.
Maya has not been seen since her disappearance, but a friend sent Ilan a video of Itay being held hostage by Hamas.
Maya, 21, (left) and her brother Itay, 18, (right) were at the Tribe of Nova music festival when they were taken hostage
“I think he’s alive now,” Ilan said of his son. “I don’t know, but he didn’t die in the shooting.” They informed us.’
The siblings’ mother, Mirit, said she received messages from Maya saying they were fine and were waiting for police to let them go.
Maya Mirit is also believed to have sent a message telling her mother: “I love you.”
Burnett said Ilan and Mirit shared the call because they wanted the world to be “attention and caring.”
The horrific phone call was in stark contrast to the night the siblings headed to the Tribe of Nova music festival on October 7th.
Among the approximately 3,500 people who traveled from around the world to celebrate the festival’s promoted values of “free love and free spirit, protection of the environment and appreciation of natural values,” about 260 people were killed and dozens more kidnapped.
“Mom, I’m going to unpack my suitcase when I get back,” Maya told her mother Friday evening as she hurried to get started, the Associated Press reported. ‘See you in the morning.’
It’s a typical activity for the duo, who both enjoy being out and about, meeting friends and, most importantly, traveling, their parents said.
Maya has not been seen since her disappearance, but a friend sent Ilan a video of Itay being held hostage by Hamas (pictured).
The call was also shared in an Instagram post on an account pleading for the siblings’ safe return
Maya had already bought her ticket for an extended trip to South America in December.
But early the next morning, Ilan’s phone rang, with a distraught Maya on the other end.
“I want to know that my children are alive,” Ilan told the outlet.
Mirit added: “We don’t know if they eat.” We don’t know if they drink. When they are hurt.’
The families of the more than 200 people the Israeli military said were taken hostage by Hamas militants are holding out hope after news that two hostages have been released.
Judith and Natalie Raanan, an American, and their teenage daughter were released and reunited with their family. It was Hamas’ first hostage release.