"Tribe of Nova" Techno Festival
Israel music festival-goers fled in hail of bullets
For weeks, excited music-lovers had looked forward to the Tribe of Nova festival, held in the desert in southern Israel to coincide with the Jewish festival of Sukkot.
"The time has come when the whole family is about to get together again," organisers wrote on social media before it began. "And what fun it is going to be!"
Just hours later, their social media pages are now flooded with desperate people trying to find loved ones, after Palestinian militants stormed the festival and opened fire as part of huge surprise attack on Israel.
More than 250 bodies have reportedly been recovered from the festival site, according to rescue agency Zaka, quoted by Israeli media.
One partygoer, called Ortel, said the first sign that something was wrong was when a siren went off at around dawn, warning of rockets. Eyewitnesses said the rockets were quickly followed by gunshots.
"They turned off the electricity and suddenly out of nowhere they [militants] come inside with gunfire, opening fire in every direction. Fifty terrorists arrived in vans, dressed in military uniforms,"
People tried to flee the site, she said, running across the sand and getting into their cars to drive away - but partygoers said there were jeeps full of gunmen, shooting at the cars.
"They fired bursts, and we reached a point where everyone stopped their vehicles and started running. I went into a tree, a bush like this, and they just started spraying people. I saw masses of wounded people thrown around and I'm in a tree and trying to understand what's going on."
The festival site - with three stages, a camping area and bar and food area - was in the Negev desert, near Kibbutz Re-im. It is not far from the Gaza Strip, from where Hamas fighters crossed over at dawn to launch their attack. They infiltrated towns and villages, taking dozens of people hostage...
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One of the famous people who died in that attack was the former Israeli soccer player "Lior Asulin" who was celebrating his 43rd birthday at the party.