Partygoers flee a rave in the Negev Desert during a Hamas raid
When Anya Bonget's daughter Sophia told her she was going for a walk to nature party in Israel's Negev desert, she saw little reason to worry.
The venue was Kibbutz Reim, just two miles from the border with the Gaza Strip, but since the border was carefully guarded, it seemed completely safe.
Then, at 8 a.m. on Saturday Morning she called Sofia to check on her after learning that terrorists had broken through the border fence nearby.
“Mom, they are killing us,” was her answer. «They're shooting at us.»
Sofia, 21, was part of a crowd of revelers at an outdoor trans party that was targeted by terrorists during their Saturday morning raid.
Cell phone footage shows gunmen chasing partygoers across the Negev Desert, shooting some and kidnapping others. At least 250 people died.
Bonje, 42, told The Telegraph of her phone conversation with Sophia as she joined other worried parents giving DNA samples at an office near Israel's Bun Gurion airport yesterday. As her daughter spoke her last words to her, she heard screams in the background.
Her daughter then hung up, but half an hour later she sent a message saying she was “lucky to have the best parents in the world.” world.» peace.”
“It was like saying goodbye,” Ms. Bonje said, hiding her tear-stained eyes behind her sunglasses.
Sofia was recently demobilized from the army. Israel has compulsory military service for both men and women, and she was enjoying a gap year before going to university.
“She just said she was going to this fun festival,” her mother added . “The fact that it was close to the Gaza Strip didn’t matter to anyone.”
The rave was held to mark the end of the week-long religious festival of Sukkot in Israel and began around 11 pm on Friday.
The event was still in full swing when the terrorists violated the border around 6 am, and the dancing crowds did not initially notice the approaching militants.
Footage taken on a partygoer's mobile phone showed several small black dots appearing in the morning sky from Gaza. When the operator shouts what appears to be a warning, the partygoers ignore him, unable to hear over the music.
Moments later, the dancing stopped as the revelers realized that the «dots» in the sky were motorized paragliders. transporting armed Hamas terrorists.
When the rocket attack began, the dancers ran for their lives, pursued by militants ready to shoot and kidnap everyone in their path.
Dozens of partygoers were reported killed or kidnapped after the riots, which began around 7 a.m. Saturday. Others are still missing. Unconfirmed footage of a large number of bodies at the scene.
Among those detained was 26-year-old British citizen Jake Marlow, who helped provide security at the rave.
The unconscious body of the dreadlocked guest was later driven through the sector Gas on a truck, and passersby spat at it.
On Sunday, survivors described how they fled in cars and on foot through the desert, dodging machine gun fire, artillery fire and grenade launchers.
Party regular Chen Mizrahi, a Tel Aviv resident, told Israeli news site Ynet: “It all started at seven in the morning. When the rockets started firing from the sky, we started shouting «Code Red» (a warning used by the Israelis when rocket attacks are coming from the Gaza Strip) to everyone. There were several firing points; we ran from one direction to another.
“Many fell and were wounded as a result of the terrorists' fire… Somehow we managed to escape the line of fire. While escaping, we were shot at three times.”
He and his friends eventually escaped despite their car being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. “Little by little I see friends I know coming to the hospital. This is a very, very difficult sight,” he added.
According to other witnesses, gunmen stalked the festival grounds and executed revelers.
Gili Joskovich told the BBC she hid under a fruit tree, playing dead for three hours to avoid being shot at and killed.
< p> “I saw people dying around me. I was very quiet. I didn’t cry, I didn’t do anything,” she said.
“I… breathed and said: “Okay, I’m going to die. It's okay, just breathe, just close your eyes.»
She added: “They went tree by tree and shot. Everywhere. On both sides. I saw people dying around me.»
Esther Borochova also survived by playing dead in a car after the driver who tried to help her escape was shot at point-blank range.
«I I couldn’t move my legs,” she said while being treated in hospital. “The soldiers came and took us into the bushes.”
Noya Reuven, 20, told The Times of Israel how hundreds of partygoers ran to their cars as rockets flew overhead. As she drove away in her car, she heard shots fired into the crowd.
Another partygoer told Israel's Channel 12 that at first the rocket noise «sounded like it was part of the music.»
He said he and his friends “felt bullets flying around us” as they tried to get to their cars.
With a crowd of fleeing vehicles trapped in a bottleneck, passengers fled on foot through the desert, many still dressed in club gear.
Tal Ghibli, another partygoer, said she abandoned her car and ran for cover into nearby woods, passing dead and wounded people lying on the side of the road.
She shared a video with CNN showing one of the participants shot outside a van and another dead in the passenger seat of the car.
“It was so terrible, and we didn’t know where to go so as not to meet these evil… people,” she told the channel. “I have many friends who got lost in the forest for several hours and were shot as if it were a shooting range.”
While survivors were heading to nearby hospitals, Israeli Home Front Command volunteers were compiling lists of those presumed dead or dead. missing. One group of about 30 revelers reportedly returned safe on Sunday morning after 24 nearly went into hiding.
By Sunday, reports of partygoers being detained in the Gaza Strip also began to emerge. Among those feared to be there was British citizen Mr. Marlow.
Mr Marlow called his mother to say the rave had been hit by rockets, then texted her an hour later to say he loved her, according to the British weekly Jewish News.
p>Tzipi Hotovely, Israel's ambassador to the UK, told Sky News that she knew of «one British citizen who is currently in the Gaza Strip», but did not say who it was.
Shani Luk is believed to have been captured by Hamas
The dreadlocked party girl who walked through the streets of Gaza was reportedly Shani Luk, a German-Israeli citizen with a double citizenship.
CNN reported that it had confirmed video footage of her being driven in a truck guarded by a gunman with a grenade launcher while one of his companions held her by the hair.
The audience joined in applauding «Allahu Akbar» (Arabic for «God is great»).
In a video obtained by German news outlet Bild, Luca Ricard's mother said: «This morning is my daughter, Shani Nicole Luk, a German citizen, was kidnapped by Palestinian Hamas along with a group of tourists in southern Israel.
“We were sent a video in which I clearly see our daughter unconscious in a car with Palestinians driving around the Gaza Strip. Please send us any help or news.»
Margarita Gusak and Simon Vigdergaus disappeared after the rave.
Waiting anxiously with Ms. Bonge were the parents of two other partygoers, Margarita Gusak and Simon Wigderhaus, both 21 years old.
Neither Margaret nor Simon have been heard from since Saturday morning, leading their immediate families to fear the worst.
Margarita's mother, Valentina, said that when she found out that her daughter was going to the rave, her main concern was that drug use might continue.
“I was a little worried that she would go to the rave. : I suspected there might be drugs and alcohol involved, but my daughter told me, “Don’t worry, I’m just here to dance and have fun,” she said.
Around 6:15 a.m. on Saturday, Margarita sent the letter. her mother received a text message saying that air raid sirens had sounded and that she planned to leave the scene by car.
Desperate for answers, Valentina and her husband Igor tried to get to the scene. rave on Sunday, where partygoers' cars lay abandoned and riddled with bullets. They hoped to find their daughter's car. However, the area was still blocked by the military.
Then they went to Netivot, a town near Gaza, where a group of Chinese workers previously captured by Hamas had been freed.
“ We hoped that our children will also get out of there, but nothing happened,” said Valentina.
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