October 7 > Nova Festival > Testimony of Omer U
06:25.
Morning, sunrise, music, love, good energies, smiles, beautiful people, who are dancing, celebrating their life and just spreading love. I was finally seeing my friends who I missed so much and I was meeting amazing people.
06:30.
Rockets.
From heaven to hell.
But it’s only rockets, we’re used to this. We weren’t aware that we were being surrounded from every possible fucking direction and at this stage I’m completely disconnected from the world and I don’t understand what is happening.
After around 40 minutes under a canopied area, the police officers told us to pack our stuff and leave. At first we wanted to hide under a bridge.
We didn’t know what to do and by some divine intervention, we decided to get into the car and drive, but where to? To run, to somehow get out of the field.
Only then, we started to hear gunfire!
We look behind us and see a shooting range.
I see that my friends, my brothers and sisters, who a second ago were so happy together, are now terrified, running for their lives between bullets, falling down.
We manage to get two girls we don’t even know into our car and our friend tells us to put our heads down and again, we enter the chaos and try to escape the field. After patrolling for several minutes, we see the asphalt and we miraculously manage to escape.
08:53
Thank god. We reach Tze’elim. Scared, not comprehending what we just went through, understanding that we survived by some miracle and simply hugging one another.
I want to thank the residents of Tze’elim who cared for us and brought us food, coffee, chargers, cigarettes, mattresses.
I regret not getting more people into the car, my heart is torn for those who are no longer with us, who only wanted to celebrate their life, who thought it would end like this? In seconds.
Our outlook on life is changing, and I pray for those missing and for our loved ones to come back safely and that this horror will end soon.
Love you all, amen.
Omer U.