Riding on motorcycles, Hamas sowed death and destruction at a festival: ‘It was a battlefield’ | Abroad

The Jewish holiday Simchat Torah has been celebrated since Friday evening in the Israeli settlement of Urim, about thirty kilometers from the Gaza Strip. Thousands of people were attending an open-air festival in a forest when Hamas’ shelling began. Visitors were injured by the rocket attack.

As festival goers fled in panic, Hamas fighters on motorcycles entered the site from all sides, survivors tell the Israeli news site Haaretz. They opened fire on the crowd. “It was chaos. They came from everywhere,” said an eyewitness.

Although Israelis in that area always take rocket attacks from Gaza into account, everyone was completely taken by surprise by this attack, says Adam Barel. He tried to get away by car but was stopped by a jeep with Hamas fighters who started shooting. Still, Barel managed to run away. “People were hit. We hid. Everyone fled in one direction,” he says Haaretz.

Visitors were shot at from all directions, scattering and hiding wherever they could. Some hid in bushes, others in ditches and orchards, begging for help. Omer, who managed to escape while being shot at, said the road was full of burnt-out cars. “It was a battlefield.”

According to witnesses, it took five hours for the army to arrive. According to The Times of Israel dozens of bodies were said to have been removed from the festival grounds. Until late Saturday evening, emergency workers were busy evacuating festival goers.

A video emerged on social media of Hamas fighters kidnapping an Israeli girl by motorcycle, while her boyfriend was left behind. “Don’t kill me,” she screamed as the bike sped away. It concerns a 25-year-old woman who was at the festival.

Relatives and friends of hundreds of visitors who are missing are searching social media for information about their loved ones. Michael Zrihan tries to contact his cousin Shahar, but he doesn’t answer his phone. He did get hold of his cousin’s girlfriend. “His girlfriend said that Shahar had been shot in the neck and had hid in the car. Two hours later we managed to contact her again. She shouted: ‘I’m being shot at, I don’t know what to do’. We’ve lost touch since then.”

According to The New York Times lists of five hundred names of people who are missing are shared on social media. According to an eyewitness, the celebration took place from 11 p.m. on Friday evening.

The American newspaper cannot verify the reports, but reports that eyewitnesses are also talking about ‘chaotic scenes’ at the festival in WhatsApp groups. People are said to have tried to flee in cars. According to local TV stations, there is hardly any telephone traffic in the area, and concerned parents of young people who were at the festival are urged not to come to Urim.