The subject of the haunting photo of a young woman wearing a red scarf fleeing an attack at the Nova festival on October 7 has come forward to share the story of how she survived as Hamas slaughtered her friends.
Vlada Patapov, a 25-year-old mother, told the Daily Mail that she went to the desert on a whim to accompany her friends, with their sleep interrupted when sirens went off at 6.30am.
“I immediately heard a shot. It is strong and very close to us,” he said. “For a few seconds I didn’t know what was happening and then Matan just shouted that we have to run to the car.”
Vlada Patapov fled the attack on the Nova music festival on Oct. 7.
The panic set off a race for survival that forced the Ukrainian-born Patapov to ditch his now-iconic red scarf and flee amid gunfire before jumping into the back of a car and fleeing the scene of the carnage.
While he and his two friends were able to escape to safety, several other friends were among the more than 360 people killed by Hamas terrorists at the festival.
Patapov, a wedding planner, went to the festival with his friends Matan and Mai, and a few others, to relax on the holiday weekend.
Several of Patapov’s friends were killed in the massacre.
Although he was concerned about the location of the rave so close to the Gaza border, he said he thought it would be safe, otherwise it wouldn’t have been held in the first place.
His fears, however, came true when rocket fire from Gaza began shelling Israel on the morning of Oct. 7.
Although Patapov and others thought it was another wave of attacks that would eventually be deflected by Israel’s Iron Dome Defense system, it quickly became clear that the rockets were only the first wave of an all-out assault on the Jewish State.
The bodies of some of the 380 victims of the Nova festival attack.
Soon evacuations began as Hamas terrorists descended on the festival grounds, with Patapov repeating claims that some gunmen were posing as IDF soldiers to lure victims.
“We thought it was an Israeli soldier and we were going to be fine, then a guy a few cars ahead got out and the soldier, who I know now is a terrorist, shot him,” Patapov said of the traps set up along the evacuation. route.
“We were all crouching low, and bullets started hitting the cars around us but, I don’t know how, we didn’t seem to get hit,” he told the Mail.
Israeli soldiers inspect the damage at the scene of the festive attack. Reuters
Escaping with Matan’s vehicle quickly became impossible as the exit was cordoned off and the vehicle ended up stuck in the desert.
The trio then ran across the desert, where footage of Patapov was taken as several people, including friends, were shot dead by Hamas.
In the chaos, Patapov and Mai were separated from Matan, with both women crying after they reached the forest where they could hide for cover.
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‘We didn’t know what to do or where to go and all I could think about was Romi,” Patapov said of his son. “I kept looking at his face and said someone has to stick up for him.”
The two women were eventually picked up by a man on the road who led them and five others out of the desert and took them to safety at a military base in Tze’elim.
Patapov was then able to reconnect with Matan, who had reached another military base within 20 minutes.
When he got home, Patapov said he gave his daughter “the biggest hug ever.”
Despite waking up every morning grateful he survived the ordeal, Patapov admits he is dealing with survivor’s guilt after a terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 Israelis.
“‘I sometimes feel guilty because I survived, and others didn’t and what happened to me only lasted maybe 18 hours but for most people the pain is still going on and I think about the hostages who are still in Gaza. We cannot forget them,” he said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
