An Israeli who survived the Hamas attack on the Nova festival on October 7 recalled running barefoot for more than 15 miles while terrorists closed in from all directions in a “circle of death.”
“You can hear the bullets whistling and hitting the sand. I had the physical sensation that I had a giant target on my back that was getting bigger. I could hear screams but I thought, if I look back I’m dead,” Nadav Hanan, 27, told The Guardian of his ordeal all day running through fields hoping to find safety from Hamas attackers.
Just a few hours earlier, Hanan was partying with his friends at the Nova music festival in the southern Negev, just across the border with the Gaza Strip.
“It was after 6 a.m. It was the height of the party. Many people take time with their medicine to start the sunrise at these parties. It should have been one of the best moments,” he said of the final moments before Hamas terrorists attacked and killed 360 festival-goers.
“People on the main stage can’t see what’s going on but we have a clear view of Gaza. We could see the Iron Dome [the Israeli anti-missile defense system] working. I know the party is over,” continued Nadav.
Nadav Hanan, 27, survived the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival on Oct. 7. Nadav Hanan/Facebook
Nadav’s girlfriend and mother heard the sirens and called him to come home, he told The Guardian.
He and his friends tried to drive away from the festival site, but the road was blocked.
“We are at a T-junction. There was a policeman stopping people going left but didn’t tell us why. I was still naive at this point, thinking that it was because of the rockets,” Nadav said of the chaotic scene.
An armed Hamas fighter drags a man during the Nova music festival attack. ANONYMOUS/AFP via Getty Images Attendees are seen running away from Hamas terrorists.
Just a short distance away, however, Hamas terrorists ambushed people in their cars.
“We were thinking of going right, which takes you south, when we saw another car approaching from that direction on the wrong side of the road. There were two men, absolutely terrified. They told us that they had reached the gas station where they were shot,” explained Nadav.
At that point, Nadav said, he and his friends abandoned their car and decided the best way out was to run across a nearby field.
Photographs of some of the Nova festival goers who were killed in a memorial at the site. ABIR SULTAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
As they embark on a desperate journey, however, they are confronted by passing vehicles and a golf cart towing an injured victim.
“The person in the back was really wobbly. Struggling to sit up if they weren’t supported. I could see three circles of blood that I knew were bullet holes,” Nadav said of the injured person in the back of the golf cart.
Just a few minutes later he heard gunshots nearby and took off with his bag, he continued.
“There is a wadi [riverbed] in front of us with many people in it. I was wearing Birkenstocks but I couldn’t run in them so I took them off,” said Nadav.
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“One of my friends looked back. He could see three or four [Hamas operatives] above us above the wadi. He tried to whisper but his voice got louder: ‘I see them! I see them!’
“At that time we knew there was Hamas below us as well, so we climbed the 4 meter high cliff. At this stage I already have three thorns on my leg,” he said.
The group then reached an agricultural road, where Hamas shot them again as they sought cover by moving towards some trees.
“At this point I don’t remember everything. It seems to have been deleted. We changed direction but were shot again. That’s when I realized: they are everywhere,” Nadav told The Guardian.
Finally, the terrifying truth became clear: Hamas surrounded them.
“It’s a circle of death. And it’s getting smaller and smaller,” he recalled thinking at the time.
Hanan rejected his friends’ suggestion that they stop and try to hide.
“I said: ‘No, it is waiting for mercy.’ I want to keep walking,” he said.
Charred cars left at the site of the festival attack. Getty Images
Hamas opened fire on them again as they struggled to cross the crumpled field, he continued.
Then, Hanan’s phone rang: It was his reserve commander, calling him to duty.
Hanan explained he was already in the area, and asked for help, but the commander said he couldn’t do anything, and wished him luck.
A few moments later, a lone soldier directed Hanan and his group to some farm buildings, he said.
Members of the security forces continued to search for identification and personal belongings at the Nova fairgrounds for several days after the attack. Getty Images
“We’ve been running for three hours now. We are running out of water and at least there is agricultural water. It’s not good to drink but it’s something to put in a bottle and sip,” Hanan told The Guardian.
They didn’t stop long, however, before a young woman came running and told them to get out.
Loud noises across the field indicated that Israeli helicopters had attacked Hamas on the ground, Hanan explained.
The group eventually decided to walk towards a nearby village called Patish – despite the fact that local police said fighting was taking place there as well.
About 1,200 people were killed in the Oct. 7 attack. AFP via Getty Images
They called the station twice, Hanan said. The officer who spoke to him asked them not to call back.
“Finally we managed to reach the road. There are farm pickups with trailers attached. We got into one of them, maybe 40 of us all on top of each other,” explained Hanan.
The truck took the group to a safe location. By then, it was four in the afternoon, and they had been on the run for nearly 10 hours, The Guardian said.
An aerial photo shows the site of the Nova Music Festival massacre. AFP via Getty Images
Hanan – who began therapy two days after the Oct. 7 attack – said she still struggles with flashbacks and other traumatic reactions from the ordeal.
Hanan said he had also gone on a retreat for victims of the Nova festival in Cyprus.
“I believe in peace. I believe we are not so different. My grandparents are from Arab countries. I have an Arab friend. We eat the same food and use the same curses,” he said of the ongoing conflict.
Hanan called Hamas terrorists “despicable”.
“No one who is mentally stable can do this. No reason. I think they have a choice [to say no when they were ordered to do this]. They took other options. They decided let’s kill as many as we can, to make us despair and wake us up,” he stressed.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
