GAZA (CelebrityAccess) — Update: The Jerusalem-based international rescue agency Zaka reported finding more than 260 bodies at the site of the Nova Festival, a desert rave that came under attack by Palestinian militants.
The outdoor music festival, produced by Nova Productions and held in honor of the Sukkot holiday, took place near Urim, a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip. The event focused primarily on dance music and was attended by several thousand fans, according to local news services.
The attacks, which reportedly began around dawn, included rockets followed by gunfire from attackers in military uniforms that reportedly targeted people fleeing from the event.
“We didn’t even have any place to hide because we were at [an] open space,” one fan told CNN. “Everyone got so panicked and started to take their stuff.”
In an interview with Israel’s Keshet 12, a fan described having her car destroyed by gunfire as she was leaving the festival and said she was forced to play dead for several hours to survive.
“People were shot in their cars as they tried to drive away,” one poster on WhatsApp, who claimed to be at the festival stated. “A lot of people just started running. It was crazy. Nobody knows where their friends are.”
Fan captured videos from the event also appear to show people being taken hostage though it was impossible to confirm the provenance of the videos.
In one video, an Israeli woman and her partner – identified by CNN as Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or, who had claimed to have attended the festival – were shown being kidnapped. In the video, Argamani can be seen on the back of a motorcycle pleading for help while Avinatan appears to be apprehended by several men and forced to walk with his hands behind his back.
On social media, lists began to circulate naming attendees who were still missing on Saturday evening.
According to Israeli news services, festival organizers are working with Israeli security forces to locate and identify missing festival-goers.
The attacks, part of a wider offensive by the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, follow weeks of provocations that included the storming of the Al Aqsa Mosque by thousands of Israeli settlers, seemingly under the protection of Israeli police.
