Nearly 300 Reported Killed by Hamas Insurgents at Israeli Music Festival
Nearly 300 individuals were reportedly killed at a music festival in Israel amid Hamas’ large-scale invasion.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on its website shortly after the invasion began that an “outdoor music festival” was among the places targeted by Hamas forces at the start of the incursion, which was launched on Saturday with shelling from the Gaza Strip and ground forces and paratroopers pouring into Israel.
In the hours after the invasion, reports began to surface of a major incident at the Supernova music festival being held near Kibbutz Re’im in southwestern Israel, with Palestinian forces having allegedly gunned down a huge number of attendees at the event.
The BBC reported that “more than 260 bodies” were reportedly recovered from the site. The British outlet cited the Israeli rescue agency Zaka, which responded to the massacre and was working to gather the bodies of the victims there.
Zaka did not respond to a request for comment on Monday regarding the shootings, but social media was flooded with footage of the incident, including its aftermath, some of which appeared to show a scene of wrecked and destroyed cars at the abandoned festival site.
Israeli resident Gili Yoskovich, meanwhile, told Israeli news network i24NEWS that she had been working the festival when the deadly chaos began.
“[T]errorists were coming from all over, hundreds of terrorists,” she said. “They started to shoot everywhere. And everyone started to run.”