Young Israelis recount panic at music festival massacre
At least 260 killed, including a Canadian man from Montreal, in Hamas attack near Gaza
Shye Klein Weinstein wasn't actually meant to go to the Supernova music festival. A crowded trance event wasn't usually his scene, but he bought a last-minute ticket to go with his cousin, his cousin's girlfriend and a handful of other friends — all in their 20s and 30s.
They ended up among thousands of people caught in the scramble to flee the festival in the early hours of Saturday morning, where Hamas gunmen killed 260 people — including a Canadian man — in what became the worst civilian massacre in Israel's history.
"We just went there to have fun and enjoy ourselves and nobody was expecting that, in less than 10 hours, that we would be fleeing from people who wanted us dead for no reason other than that we existed," said Weinstein, 26, who grew up in the Toronto area and moved to Israel in April.
"It wasn't even like everybody there was Israeli," he said. "There was tourists and non-Jews. There was everybody and they didn't care."
Rockets didn't immediately cause panic, witnesses say
Weinstein and his friends arrived at the festival around 1:00 a.m. after making the hour's drive from Tel Aviv. The grounds were near Re'im, about eight kilometres from the border with Gaza.
"Everybody was happy, making friends, dancing with their friends and just enjoying a good time. It was all amazing until about 6:00 a.m.," he said.
"That's when the first rockets started."
Weinstein said rockets aren't an unusual sound for people living in Israel, so the crowd took their time packing up to leave. He said people also believed they'd be protected by the Iron Dome – the Israeli defence system capable of intercepting and destroying short-range rockets.
"I thought I had time, thinking, "It's just rockets, it's not a rush' … Then, just as we're about to leave, we all start hearing gunfire," he said.
"Then I'm like, 'We have to go. Now.'"
As Palestinian gunmen who breached Gaza's border fence opened fire, Klein and his friends got into his aunt's car and started leaving the grounds. They pulled up to what they believed to be a traffic jam at the exit, initially unaware many of the cars stopped in front of them had been abandoned by people who fled on foot.
Drone footage taken in the aftermath of the attack showed cars left at the roadside, near Kibbutz Re'im, close to Gaza, from which Hamas launched its attack.
When Weinstein and his friends realized the cars were empty, they turned around and drove through a field.
"There's so much dust in there. We can't see. We can't breathe. Our mouths are dry. Our noses are stuffed. Nobody can see. People are driving this way and that way, and back and forth and everywhere. People are running on foot," he said.
Weinstein said they found a service road and drove back to Tel Aviv. The hour's drive took a little more than two.
"My cousin had a cigarette in his mouth that burnt right to the filter and he didn't take a puff. I don't think he blinked the whole way [back]," Weinstein said.
"The whole time I thought, 'This is it.' I was just waiting for bullets to fly towards us.… But there was no fear during the whole thing. It was just, 'Get out, get out, get out, get out. Be afraid when you're back home.'"
Thousands of young people attended the party, which became one of the first targets of Palestinian gunmen who breached Gaza's border fence early on Saturday under the cover of rocket barrages from Gaza. Hamas and other militants in Gaza say they are holding more than 130 soldiers and civilians hostage.
Maya Alper, 25, recalled air sirens blaring just after 6 a.m., as the festival was drawing to a close and attendees were still dancing, after enjoying a night of electronic music.
As it became clear they were hearing bullets instead of firecrackers, panicked young men and women raced through the field.
For more than six hours, Alper was one of thousands who hid without help from the Israeli army as Hamas militants threw grenades and fired guns.
She said her limbs were so cramped in the bush that she couldn't wiggle her toes. At different points, she heard what she thought were militants speak in Arabic just beside her. A yoga devotee who practises meditation, Alper said she focused on her breath, and "praying in every way I knew possible."
On Monday, the parents of a 33-year-old Montreal man confirmed that he was among those killed in the ambush. Alexandre Look's father, Alain Haim Look, told CBC News his son died trying to protect others.
Israeli emergency services said 260 bodies had been recovered from the site of the festival. Other social media footage shows some of those taken captive from the party being led away by heavily armed gunmen.
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With files from The Associated Press