As the onslaught began, panic-stricken people dashed across a field
New Delhi:
When Guli Sharvit and her husband Idan were sipping drinks with their friends at the Supernova festival in southern Israel near the Gaza border, someone pointed at the sky and shouted, “Look, rockets!” Within hours, over 250 people at the festival had been butchered in cold blood by Hamas operatives, while thousands fled.
The heavily armed Hamas members swarmed into Israel in a sensational, multifaceted assault in the early hours of Saturday, using motorbikes, pickup trucks, speed boats, and even motorised gliders to reach the country’s coastline and launch a synchronised attack, dealing the Israeli intelligence services one of the most shocking failures in living memory.
As the onslaught began, panic-stricken people at the Supernova festival dashed across a field towards their vehicles, to the sound of gunshots in the background.
The Hunt
Ms Sharvit, a 23-year-old psychology student, speaking exclusively to NDTV, said, “Nobody prepared us for what we were about to go through. At 4 in the morning on Saturday, we headed to the party, which was near the Gaza border. I had been there once before, and I had a good time. We arrived at around 5 am, and we were immediately greeted by the sound of music. We grabbed a drink and started to dance. At around 6:20 am, we went back to the bar to get another drink. Suddenly, someone started yelling at what seemed like rockets in the sky.
“I didn’t understand what was happening at first, but then I saw it. Missiles were being fired from Gaza towards us. The sky was exploding, and the Iron Dome was shooting back. At 6:31 am, the music stopped at the party, and people started to panic.”
The Supernova Sukkot Gathering, a weekend-long outdoor trance music festival, is held in honour of the Sukkot festival, and continues well into the morning in Re’im, a village approximately 5 km from the Gaza Strip.
The Chase
“We were running for our lives. The terrorists were shooting at us from all directions. We saw smashed cars full of bullet holes, and wounded people bleeding. Ambulances were trying to reach them, but they were being shot at too,” Ms Sharvit said. “Me, my husband, and two of our friends ran all over the area. We didn’t know where we were going, but we just kept running.”
Ms Sharvit and her husband, 24, have a baby boy, just one and a half months old, back home. As the couple ran for their lives, the only thought on their minds was who would take care of him. Gunmen killing people left, right and centre, rockets raining down, the future looked bleak.
“I ran until I couldn’t run anymore. I collapsed on the ground, and I started to cry. I didn’t know what to do,” she recalled.
Numerous people were killed, and others were taken captive. Videos of festival goers begging for help from the back of motorbikes and pickup trucks went viral on social media. Footage of the devastating aftermath of the attack showed dozens of scorched and mangled vehicles strewn along the roadside leading away from the festival site.
Ms Sharvit, her husband, and two of their friends ran like maniacs. They did not know where they were going, they just kept running. The couple finally arrived at a moshav, or a settlement, with a group of about 15 people. “We could either stay there and hide, or we could try to run to the next Pardes. They could either stay there and hide or could run to the next settlement on the way.”
Then it started again. The armed men had reached them. The shooting had begun. So they ran, again.
“We were like the Israelites leaving Egypt. We were exhausted,” Ms Sharvit said.
The Escape
It had been five hours since the couple and other survivors from the festival had started running. It was 11:20 am when they reached another settlement where a couple took them in and gave them food, water, and respite from the death chase. At 14:50 pm, Israeli authorities, in combat and rescue mode, arranged a shuttle that would take them to Be’er Sheva, a city in southern Israel.
“We were still in the Gaza envelope, and we were worried about the rockets,” she said. “We arrived in Be’er Sheva safely. Our parents came to pick us up and take us home. My two friends who had been with me at the party were also rescued. They had been hiding under a bush for four hours. They had seen people being killed and kidnapped next to them.
“We are all so grateful to be alive. We went out to a party, and we came back with tears in our eyes. We saw friends die. We saw families destroyed. It was an apocalypse. The terrorists came to kill us. They came to annihilate us. But we survived,” she added.
Following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a “state of war” and vowed “though Israel did not start this war” it “will finish it”. Israel has amassed 300,000 troops in retaliation against Hamas, the largest military mobilisation since the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
The Sharvits hope for a peaceful Israel where their child can grow up without seeing the horrors of war, but not without the world knowing the reality of Hamas.