(New York Post) At least 260 people were killed in a “massacre’’ at an Israeli music fest, which included Israeli officers getting blown away while acting as human shields and hostages having their legs shot so they couldn’t run, survivors say.
Graphic new images include a photo of scores of dead lying in a tent at the rave, which turned into bloody mayhem after heavily armed Palestinian terrorists paraglided across the Gaza Strip border in Saturday’s early morning sneak attack on Israel.
Video showed the unsuspecting crowd earlier dancing to music as the terrorists could be seen coming down in the distance on motorized paragliders.
The disturbing photos posted online by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs also show people who were gunned down in the street while fleeing the Tribe of Nova music festival near Gaza, while one snapshot captures a bloodied hostage loaded in the back of a Hamas vehicle.
The bodies found at the site number at least 260, CNN reported, citing Israel’s rescue service Zaka.
“We debated whether or not to share these horrific images, but the world needs to know what we are up against,” the ministry said in a statement.
“These aren’t ‘freedom fighters.’ They are Hamas terrorists, but no different than ISIS terrorists,” the Israeli office said of the attackers. “Butchering families, kidnapping grandmothers. Desecrating bodies.”
Scores of bodies were seen under a tent at the Tribe of Nova music festival.
A victim of the Hamas attack was put into a body bag by responding Israeli forces.
After the Palestinians paraglided into the area, “50 terrorists arrived at the rave site in vans, dressed in military uniforms,” a partygoer only identifed as Ortel told Israel’s Channel 12.
Raziel Tamir, who attended the music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, said he was awakened by gunshots, screams and explosions around 6 a.m. when the militant group began killing partygoers.
“When I went outside my tent, I saw a crazy number of bodies, and terrorists running and firing everywhere, throwing grenades and stun grenades at people,” Tamir told the public radio outlet, the Jerusalem Post reports.
A woman flees the attack on the music festival.
Attendees scatter as violence breaks out at the festival.
Tamir said he and 100 others were spared when Israeli soldiers used their bodies as human shields to protect those lying on the ground from incoming gunfire and explosions.
“The soldiers protected us with their bodies, and we saw them falling before our eyes,” he said.
Tamir likened the attack to a war zone, where the startled partygoer and his friends ran for cover behind trees and bushes as Hamas forces shot civilians and took hostages.
He noted that those who fled for the woods were spared an immediate ambush that Hamas had prepared for those who ran for the parking center.
“People tried to run to their cars, but the terrorists waited and slaughtered them as they tried to get into their cars and escape,” he explained.
Israeli soldiers used their bodies to protect civilians fleeing Hamas.AFP via Getty Images
Hamas shared a photo of a militant kidnapping a bloodied victim near the Gaza Strip.Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Facebook
It wasn’t long until Hamas began firing into the bushes, where Tamir said he saw countless people die as he tried his best to dodge the gunfire before eventually covering himself in dirt and leaves to avoid detection.
As he hid, Tamir said, he recalled the screams of the wounded howling in pain, as well as those of two of his friends, whom he could hear being kidnapped and beaten.
He added that some of the kidnapped people had their legs shot so they could not resist or escape.
Tamir also claimed that Hamas terrorists were masquerading as IDF rescue forces during the bloodbath, tricking Israelis into thinking they were running toward their saviors only to be gunned down.
“I didn’t stop praying,” Tamir said of the horrific experience. “It is a miracle we got out of there without a scratch.”
