Further details of the desert rave massacre near Gaza are circulating today, with more than 250 bodies recovered thus far after Hamas militants descended upon the party in the early hours of Saturday morning (October 7).
The all-night ‘peace’ music festival was held to mark the end of the Sukkot holiday, a week-long observance in which Jews mark the Autumn harvest. Here’s what it looked like moments before Hamas unleashed hell – with a statue of Buddha in the background, no less:
HOLY SHLIT
Hamas paradropped right into an ongoing rave in Israel
They had no idea what was coming pic.twitter.com/dl78zDkRIM
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 8, 2023
Aside from slaughtering 250+ people, Hamas also kidnapped several attendees. One of those is Noa Argamani, 25, seen in the clip below being driven away on the back of a gunman’s motorbike as she pleads for her life. She’s not been seen since and her boyfriend, Avi Nathan, is also missing:
Familia de una joven israelí la ve en un video mientras era secuestrada por Hamás en un festival cerca de Gaza. Se difundió una grabación en la que se puede observar cómo Noa Argamani grita “No me maten”, mientras se la llevaban en una motocicleta. pic.twitter.com/sfnorwyZ1b
— Sepa Más (@Sepa_mass) October 9, 2023
Party-goers first realised something was wrong when a siren started going off before Hamas cut the power and started opening fire. Also unaccounted for is British citizen Jake Marlow, who was working on the festival’s security team. Speaking to Jewish News, mum Lisa said:
“He was doing security at this rave yesterday 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.
“I don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing. I’ve got people in Israel phoning the home guard command, others talking to others, everyone’s just trying to help as much as they can.”
The attack on the festival came as thousands of rockets rained down on towns and cities in a surprise attack at dawn. Bartender Peleg Oren, 26, told The Independent how the music stopped and everyone dropped to the floor – a well-rehearsed drill for Israelis in the south of the country used to frequent cross-border exchange of fire with the Hamas militant group. But this was so much worse:
“For five minutes there wasn’t a second’s break without a rocket. I had my own car, I tried to convince friends to leave with me but some had already arranged taxis and wanted to stick together so they wouldn’t listen.”
Israel says 600 people have been killed since Hamas launched the surprise attacks, while 370 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes, according to the health ministry in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already been given the green light by most world leaders to do what he has to do, and has vowed to get revenge on Hamas for their attack:
“I tell Hamas, you are responsible for the wellbeing of captives, Israel will settle the score with anyone who harms them. What happened today has never been seen in Israel, we will take mighty vengeance for this black day. All the places that Hamas hides in, operates from, we will turn them into rubble.”
Here’s hoping all the innocent Palestinians living near Gaza manage to evacuate in time, but where do they even go? It’s such a hopelessly devastating situation where innocent people on both sides are being killed in the name of religious supremacy. I know it’s a complex issue with a long history but surely any sensible person will oppose terrorists mowing down crowds of innocent civilians. Unfortunately, the idea of any kind of compromise or peace talks just seems impossible at the moment.
Meanwhile, the mum of the German tourist whose body was seen paraded around the streets by Hamas only discovered her daughter’s fate after seeing the video on social media. Horrific on every level.
