I had no idea that there were 400 terrorists that had infiltrated the area

October 7 > Nova Festival > Testimony of Bar D

Like so many of you I am choosing to share my story in the hope that it eases the pain a little.

It all began on Saturday, October 7 at around 6:00 in the morning. A few friends and I left the open plaza at the Nova music festival walking in the direction of the shaded area when we met a friend, Ofek, who said, 'look', pointing at the sky.

In my naivety I thought, what is there to see, a sunrise? I nodded at him, stopped and turned around and Ofek again said: 'look, rockets.'

I was in complete shock, staring, saying, “what the hell?”

We started running towards a shaded area together. We got there and lay down for a long time, around 40 minutes that felt like forever. In a hysterical panic we tried to find all our friends and decide what we should do next. At some point we realized that this is not like usual and that the rockets are not going to stop. There is no Iron Dome [interception], there is no bomb shelter to hide in and the rockets keep coming, sometimes even without a Red Alert siren, just non-stop booms. Far and near.

We decided to collect our things and go to the cars. We got into the car, Matan, Dean and I. Matan was driving and Dean and I were crying hysterically. We were scared and didn't understand what was happening. We had been separated from the rest of our friends.

"At this point I had no idea that there were 400 terrorists that had infiltrated the area."

I got a call from Guli who told me that we shouldn’t leave because there are rumors that there are Arabs with guns shooting. We went toward the exit and asked the security guard if it was true. He said yes, they are on the left so turn right. We went tot the right and drove, all this under continuous rocket fire, of course.

We started to see cars spread out on the road, those that managed to stop before getting into the area of complete carnage. We were on the highway, we got out of the car to take cover from the rocket. We heard shots being fired and we hid in the shrubbery. I told Matan and Dean to hide deeper into the bushes so they won’t be seen. At this point I had no idea that there were 400 terrorists [that had infiltrated the area], and not 4.

We heard the bursts of gunfire getting nearer and we decided to try to drive further. Afterwards we realized that was impossible because the whole road was blocked. We got out of the car and decided to run on foot. We saw people running toward the left and we joined them. We reached a group of people who said that there was nowhere to run to, they had escaped from the opposite direction.

A car full of people came past and told us to get into our cars and drive eastward. Matan consulted with some poor army soldier standing on the road who didn’t even have a weapon. He said to run east and pointed toward a direction.

We started running. I ran even as my mother called me and I shouted into my phone, “Mom I am running away I can’t talk.” I run for what feels like forever. I run and I wish I could run faster. But I can’t. Hysteria.

We arrived to some kind of dirt road, and got into the first car that stopped for us. There were 7 people in the car, four of whom were men. Luckily for us, one of the guys had been an IDF officer stationed near Gaza and he navigated us through the open terrain to the town of Netivot. We were scared to death for the whole ride that we would encounter terrorists. We were still not aware just how many terrorists there were.

Our families were calling us and telling us that terrorists had infiltrated the whole area. With very little phone battery left we tried to get through to our friends [from the party] to explain how to escape.

[Our escape was] nothing short of a miracle.

A Holocaust has occurred on Israeli soil.

We were abandoned in place!!

I am sorry that we lost the ones dearest to us under such terrible circumstances!!!!

I am praying for the families of those missing and kidnapped!

May we see better days.

Bar D.