October 7 > Nova Festival > We ran for our lives, hand in hand, and I said - "At least we die together"
This is our story, about how important it is to listen to gut feelings and intuition.
About 3 weeks ago, I spoke with Afek F., who is one of the producers of the Nova Music Festival, and asked for a discount link to the event, which rarely happens, and got approval to also pay in cash.
That’s something that never happens, for all events I pay with a credit card ahead of time.
3 days before the event, Yamit, my partner, was not feeling well, and I told her that she didn't have to go to the event, that we could pass, we were not obligated by the ticket since we would pay in cash when we got there. They won't miss us if we don't come.
You need to understand, there's no chance I would say we're not going, I always want to go to everything and never miss an event.
Yamit said, “No chance, it will be fine; I need some fresh air.”
I, as a good husband, continued with the plan as usual.
We got excited.
We organized our regular rituals every week. On the day of the event, after work, and dinner with the kids, we loaded the equipment into the car and headed south. We arrived at the event site relatively early, as per usual.
There were delays at the entrances, due to last-minute police approvals. As you know, the Supernova event is a certified event, with a very strict license, very stringent, with a police permit, with CCTV, officers, and undercover agents. While we were standing outside, I began to feel pressure in my body, and unexplained nerves. Yamit didn't understand it and neither did I.
"Within 5 seconds, hundreds of missiles, hysteria, everyone was running"
We came to the party to enjoy and dance like every week. We entered the event, paid in cash and got in. We decided to change the atmosphere we were in.
Inside, we saw upon our entry, that they were still setting up the main stage, workers with cranes, ladders, etc. I was shocked, I had never seen such a thing. The show opened with one stage, and on the other hand, work was in progress on another stage.
I went and asked, then I understood that the last Unity event was held at this same place on this same site. Something I didn't understand is how you do two festivals day after day at the same location. Of course, and obvious to me, it's the Israeli police and the licenses that push us, the trance community and the producers, to such far and dangerous territories, with impossible requirements for permits. After all, they don't care about our safety, they just care about getting rid of the community and making it impossible for us to conduct an event.
So we set up camp, jumped to the beer and whiskey bar and started the round of greetings to friends. We entered the dance floor, where we met more friends and more greetings went on. All this time, I was in some sort of discomfort, I don't know how to explain but my body was uneasy. And Yamit, like Yamit, sensed my uneasy vibe instantly.
Around 2:30 at night, Yamit told me she was going to rest in the tent and that I should stay and keep dancing, that she's okay, and that her stomach hurts a little. I said to her, “Yamit, let's go home, let's take our stuff, let's go. I’m fine with it.”
And friends, in my jargon "let's go home" does not exist.
Yamit says, “I'm going to sleep, wake me up for sunrise.” As is known, sunrise is the climax of the party.
"We later learned that anyone who was waited too long was also caught by a fire barrage, killed, or kidnapped"
Around 5:30 in the morning, I am going to wake up Yamit.
Yamit points to the sky and says, “Tal, look! there is a rocket!”.
Within 5 seconds, hundreds of missiles, hysteria, everyone was running, the police entered with hysteria and fear, there was no ‘mom and dad’ of the event, everyone ran to different places, serious chaos and confusion. We ran towards the counter and we packed everything into the car like crazy and we stopped only for a minute to relax and to breathe.
At that time, we saw two friends of ours confused in hysteria who could not find their car.
Of course, we helped them until we found the vehicle. In retrospect, this moment of looking for the car saved us. Because anyone who left quickly caught a barrage of fire. On the other hand, we later learned that anyone who was waited too long was also caught by a fire barrage, killed, or kidnapped.
"We heard screams saying 'Get out... get out of the vehicles, they're blowing us up'"
We got into the car and I put music on (Cosmo artist), because only he could calm us down and I increased the volume so Yamit would not hear the rockets that didn’t cease.
We start driving and get stuck in traffic. We managed to get about 20 meters out of the area onto the road in which traffic was even slower and we saw an ambulance about 100 meters from us. We figured it was an accident, so they are dealing with it and we slowly moved forward.
In the ambulance were terrorists.
We heard screams saying "Get out... get out of the vehicles, they're blowing us up... get out... run... escape... hide...". Yamit instinctively grabbed the phones and bag, and we started to run for our lives.
We still don't understand, it takes seconds until we realize they are shooting at us from the right, left, and from the air. At that moment we started our escape, running deeper into the open field and with us were hundreds and hundreds of people; young, friends, everyone running in a different direction. No one has a clue about anything. While running we were talking with our son who's in the military, trying to send love to everyone at home and to calm us.
Of course, we ran hand in hand, and there was a moment when I said to Yamit, "At least we'll die together like we always said".
There wasn't a single policeman, not a single soldier, no one. We ran in the fields for 3 hours; we entered an orange orchard, crossed over to the lemon orchard, and continued to run, run, run, run.....
Until suddenly Yamit noticed a small car with 3 seats, she immediately jumped into it.
I followed her, and 6 others came with us. We just pressed the gas pedal and took off. All of this time including the run was while bullets were whistling past us. And still not a single soldier nor a cop. Even when we were driving and saw a soldier with a gun, we were scared and hesitant because we understood that they had stolen uniforms and military vehicles.
We drove at 150 mph and reached Kibbutz Ra'im, which was logical to us. The gate was locked, and we were debating whether to get off and enter the kibbutz, thinking - there they would help us. In retrospect, at that time the terrorists had taken over the kibbutz.
We turned right; we reached Kibbutz Tzalim, where we, and about 250 other people from the party, were. People from the kibbutz immediately went into action and started cooking, and taking care of all our needs.
A big thank you for that; you are our heroes. The emergency squad was truly brave.
Wishing all of us good news.
Crying endlessly for the friends who were murdered and anticipating the return of the captives.
And expecting and demanding the Israeli government to eradicate Gaza and Hamas, nothing less!
Our community took a hard hit on October 7. It will never be the same again
Yamit & Tal O.