October 7 > Nova Festival > Testimony of Ido M
Bar and I arrived at the festival at around 1:00 a.m.
At around 6 in the morning, the music stopped, and a crazy amount of rockets started flying over our heads without any warning sirens. Deafening explosions filled the air. At first we lay on the ground to protect ourselves. Then we ran towards the car. It took some time to find it, since there were hundreds of cars there. All this time, there were huge explosions in the air above our heads.
We started driving off-road, people were running all over the place, others were hiding. Suddenly, there was shooting in the direction of the cars and the people. We got on the road and started driving north towards Route 4. All of a sudden, three cars in front of us, a car stopped by the side and someone got out and started yelling, "Turn around, turn around, don't you see?" and he showed us his hand, without fingers and covered in blood. The guy had been shot.
"'Turn around, turn around, don't you see?' and he showed us his hand, without fingers and covered in blood. The guy had been shot."
They blocked the road, and we started making a U-turn. It was chaos, cars crashing into each other, trying to turn around. We started driving back towards the festival. Less than 500 meters away, they started shooting at us from the other side. We stopped on the other side of the road, lay down under the car, and just watched the horror. People were running alongside of us, injured and bleeding, and [the terrorists are] shooting at them, only a few meters away from me.
Shots hit a boy. We could see the bullets enter his body. He tried to stand up, and collapsed on the road. From the other side of the road, we saw the terrorists shooting. They had this gleeful, happy look as they slaughtered innocent people. We couldn't move, but the thought that crossed my mind was that they would eventually reach us.
"There were injured people, bodies, cars riddled with bullets and left on the sides of the road."
On the other side of the road, in front of us, a concrete wall was hit by an RPG missile. There was a huge explosion. I knew there were people hiding behind that wall. The entire area was a war zone, one that even the world's best screenwriter wouldn't dare write about. There were injured people, bodies, cars riddled with bullets and left on the sides of the road.
After a while, three soldiers who happened to be in the area on a routine patrol ran to a concrete wall near us. The wall was right next to us, about 60 meters away. We hadn’t seen it before because we were so focused on the terrorists in front of us.
Bar and I started running towards the soldiers. Bar ran straight there while I looked for other options, and decided to run into the bushes a few meters behind them. We heard the whistle of bullets flying over our heads as we ran. I reached an abandoned jeep, with bullets in the windshield and engine. All this time, I was barefoot and without a phone.
Three soldiers were in front of me; one of them got relatively close to me to take a lookout position, and the other two stayed with Bar behind the concrete wall. The soldiers had been caught in the situation, as I mentioned, and one of them had been shot. They were reporting about a hurt soldier in the field who needed to be evacuated.
In the jeep, I found a bottle of water. I lay on the ground to catch my breath. I peed, washed the blood off my legs, and started looking over the hood of the car. Suddenly, I saw three terrorists running towards us from a distance. I told the soldier who had been communicating on the radio: "2 o'clock, terrorists are coming!" The soldiers managed to kill the terrorists. They realized that they needed to go and rescue the injured soldier by themselves; otherwise, he would die from his wounds, or be killed by terrorists. While the soldiers ran to the injured soldier, I moved towards the concrete wall. Then we heard the soldiers shouting, "Killed! Another one killed!"
“The scenes were horrifying. A girl bleeding from her head and a boy who had been shot got into the jeep.”
A soldier ran towards us carrying an injured soldier on his shoulders. The injured soldier was screaming in pain. The soldier put him down beside us, he was covered in blood. He had been shot in the leg and chest, and his hand was broken. A moment later, he passed out.
After a while, a jeep arrived to rescue the soldier and other wounded people. The scenes were horrifying. A girl bleeding from her head and a boy who had been shot got into the jeep.
We stayed in the field with three soldiers and some people who were terrified and couldn't move due to shock. After some time, I saw a policeman running towards us from the direction of the car, with two other policemen, towards the terrorists. Without thinking, I ran to my car. Just as I started it, the policeman came to me and said, "Get out of here, drive, drive!!!"
“We drove down the saddest road I've ever seen in my life. There were overturned cars, cars that had crashed into each other, cars scattered everywhere.”
I made a U-turn, stopped near the concrete wall that Bar was hiding behind, and yelled for him to come. Bar didn't come or respond, so I got out of the car and ran to get him. I said, "I shouted at you to get up!" and he replied, "I know, but I couldn’t move." He was sitting on the ground, frozen and scared. I said to him, "Please get up. We're getting out of here." I picked him up, put him in the car, and we started driving away quickly.
We drove down the saddest road I've ever seen in my life. There were overturned cars, cars that had crashed into each other, cars scattered everywhere. We got to a crossroads where there were police cars directing us where to go. After a few kilometers, we went past a larger roadblock with four police vehicles. They directed us to go to Route 6.
The moment I passed them, I realized that I was safe. I broke down and started crying, having a panic attack. I couldn't breathe. I cried uncontrollably. Only then did I contact my wife to let her know I was safe and in the car. All this time, she had been at home worried, not knowing where I was because she woke up at 6:30 in the morning to sirens and knew I was there.
Ido M.