'People were dropping one by one as terrorists targeted us. It was like a scene from Squid Game'

On October 7th past year, thousands of party-goers astatine the Nova Music Festival successful Israel were ambushed by Hamas terrorists. A harrowing BBC movie charts the deadly assault, revealing however a performance of emotion and bid turned into a massacre

Festival-goers who survived the horrific October 7 Hamas panic onslaught that saw hundreds of guiltless radical gunned down, person revealed it was similar a country retired of Squid Game.

As everyone scattered and ran for their lives crossed the fields of the Nova Music Festival successful the Negev godforsaken successful Israel, terrorists with rifles opened occurrence successful a brutal assault. A BBC movie to beryllium screened connected Thursday gives a harrowing minute-by-minute relationship of however a rave that celebrated love, beingness and bid turned into a bloody massacre that ended with 364 murdered and 44 others taken hostage, with hundreds much wounded.

Using the grounds of survivors, CCTV, and mobile telephone footage, determination are dozens of devastating idiosyncratic stories of those who lived and died arsenic disorder turned to fearfulness and past chaos erstwhile Hamas stormed the country and began to slaughter anyone successful sight. The astonishment ambush was portion of a deadly, coordinated onslaught from thousands of terrorists successful the area, sparking a warfare successful Gaza that has been catastrophic.

Party-goers archetypal saw rockets overhead astatine 6.30am that greeting arsenic the festival reached its climax, but thought they were fireworks… they were wrong. What followed was hours and hours of a combat for survival. They hid wherever they could – nether the stage, successful a fridge, the toilets, a bunker, successful hedges and successful a skip afloat of rubbish. They tried to flight by car arsenic Hamas aimed fire. They called the exigency services, which didn’t travel for six hours, and they called loved ones astatine home. Some survived and immoderate didn’t.

Yarin, 22, says: “It looked similar a movie, similar dominoes, similar Squid Game. They ever speech astir it, [the dystopian TV show] Squid Game, it truly was similar that. You’re moving and just, radical are dropping 1 by one. Like targets.” Lali, 20, says: “I could archer wherever they were coming from, by the radical I spot dropping. At that moment, I wasn’t adjacent reasoning astir the information that I’m seeing radical being killed successful beforehand of me.” Elad, 23, adds: “You’re playing Russian roulette, conscionable hoping you don’t get shot.”

Twenty-one-year-old Halely was hiding nether the signifier until idiosyncratic yelled: ‘Terrorists! Run now, everybody run’. She recalls: “Boom, the full assemblage was running. I saw a violent loading his gun. We didn’t cognize what to do. I was very, precise frightened that they would drawback me, that they would rape me. I thought I’d alternatively dice moving trying to prevention myself, alternatively than getting kidnapped.”

All the Nova survivors talk of their trauma aft their ordeal, crying spontaneously and incapable to sleep, plagued by nightmares. Elinor, 24, azygous mum to eight-year-old Oshri, made the important determination to ascent into an concern fridge, astir suffocating, adjacent passing out, arsenic she tried to prevention herself from gunfire. She says: “I thought, ‘There’s nary mode Oshri is going to go an orphan. No way. It’s conscionable not possible.’ I got into the fridge. I knew immoderate determination I made was death. It’s axenic evil, close successful beforehand of you.” When Elinor yet got retired hours later, she climbed into a heap of bodies, confronted with the unspeakable world of the aftermath.

Noam, 27, who has had to larn to locomotion again, recalls not being capable to shriek oregon outcry arsenic she realised she had been injured and her fellow David changeable dead. Ziv, 26, cries each greeting and each night, hopeless for quality of her fellow Eliyah, who is inactive held hostage successful Gaza aft 355 days. Mum-of-three Moran, 39, hugs 24-year-old Ben, who refused to permission her to die, practically dragging her for hours to eventual safety.

Eitan and his friends Aner and Hersh took refuge successful a weaponry shelter, but Hamas fighters hurled explosives done the doorway. Aner, 22, a instrumentalist and creator from Jerusalem, tossed backmost 8 grenades but was killed by the ninth. Hersh had his limb blown disconnected earlier being grabbed, thrown into a pick-up truck, and taken arsenic a hostage into Gaza, wherever helium was aboriginal murdered aft 11 months imprisonment.

Eitan, 28, recalls: “There was a truly large detonation and I flew back. Someone flew connected maine and erstwhile I yet got up, I retrieve Aner wasn’t lasting anymore. Hersh mislaid his hand. He said, ‘I don’t person my hand’, helium was trying to necktie it off. I retrieve seeing a violent locomotion in. He was wearing each black. He had a achromatic disguise on, an AK-47, and a greenish bandana connected his caput with the Hamas symbol. I retrieve you could spot his rima done the mask. He had a small opening, and helium was smiling. Like it was a crippled that they won. They came backmost in, and past they started shooting everyone inside."

He adds: “A grenade landed close successful beforehand of me. You could spot the occurrence getting smaller and smaller. I picked it up and threw it out. I’m not definite however galore of those determination were. Then determination was an explosion, I went flying into the partition and passed out. We were determination for six hours successful piles of bodies. Just praying to deity that nary violent would travel back. I’m ne'er going to beryllium the idiosyncratic that I was earlier the seventh of October, and I’m trying to fig retired who I’m going to beryllium now.”

*Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again, Thursday 26th September, BBC Two and BBC iPlayer, 9pm