An Israeli man who survived Hamas’ barbaric attack on a music festival revealed the heartbreaking phone call he made to his dad as he feared for his life.
Shahar Gabay branded the terrorists who descended on the festival as ‘merciless animals’, and said the chaos-filled moments left him ‘saying my last goodbye’ to his father.
‘I was terrified for my life… people all around me getting slaughtered and just a massacre,’ Gabay told Fox News.
The former soldier said he endured an agonizing five-hour ordeal as he fled the scene, and was forced to run around 19 miles until he made it to safety.
Although Gabay was able to escape the ‘horror show’ event, Hamas’ brutal onslaught killed at least 260 people in one of the first locations to be attacked when the conflict escalated Saturday.
Shahar Gabay said he was ‘terrified for my life’ when the Nova music festival was attacked by Hamas terrorists on Saturday
At least 260 were killed in the massacre while many are still missing – either dead or taken hostage by the bloodthirsty militants
After Hamas fighters paraglided into the nearby area and smashed through the festival borders in pickup trucks, Gabay said the event rapidly went from ‘normal’ and ‘really fun’ to a ‘horror show.’
‘We heard explosions and missiles and everything around us just changed in a minute,’ he said.
‘Total shock. Everyone ran. Everyone screamed. Everyone didn’t know what to do. Also, you need to understand that at this location there is no safe place to be. There’s no cover. It’s all open fields and the missiles are within seconds of being launched on us.’
The horrific attack lasted for over four hours, as bloodthirsty insurgents shot at festivalgoers as they ran in every direction.
Gabay miraculously survived by dodging bullets in the largely flat, open space, and tried to hide with his friend in several areas while they were hunted down.
He said they hid between two containers when missiles first struck, but said they desperately ran from the scene ‘as fast as (they) could’ and jumped into an ambulance when bullets began firing.
When the ambulance got stuck, they attempted to use a van, which Gabay said ‘everyone was hanging on.’
In a ‘terrifying’ moment, they realized the van couldn’t make it out as it was blocked by cars, and the group knew their last resort was escaping on foot.
An Israeli soldier searches the music festival site on Thursday, days after at least 260 people were massacred
Israeli soldiers are seen at the site of the music festival, which was around three miles from the Gaza border
Destroyed cars and personal effects are still left scattered around the music festival site on October 13, six days after the attacks
Shattered glass and an array of personal items were left at the scene
Gabay said the terrorists fired a hail of bullets all around the site, with bullet holes still visible in the windshield of a car pictured on October 13
‘They shot directly at us. The van got all the bullets flying and glass breaking and it was terrifying at this moment… We were panicked,’ he said.
‘We didn’t know what to do and we just… jumped out of the van and we were by foot.’
The scenes at the music festival shocked the world, with the father of an Israeli-American reveler revealing the heartbreaking choice he made to track her iPhone to discover how and where she lost her life.
The father, Eyal Waldman, found his daughter’s her wrecked, bullet-ridden car where it had been stranded as they tried to escape the atrocious Hamas attacks.
Gabay said the barrage of bullets left him ‘terrified for my life’, as he sprinted for over a mile in an ‘open field with nothing to protect us’.
At that same moment, Gabay’s father called him without realizing the danger his son was in.
‘I told him I love him. I was panicked and I think he realized what was happening and realized that I’m saying my last good-bye,’ he said.
Gabay said he was a combat soldier and intends to join the conflict when he recovers from the ordeal, and he insisted that his training in the Israel Defense Force included strict guidelines on how to handle civilians.
‘I was always taught to be human first. If we did something that was even close to what they did, we would be [put] in prison, we would be judged the harshest way,’ he said.
‘People need to know the difference [between us and them]. Hamas is no army, no country. They are just terrorists without any heart.’
As the devastating attacks by Hamas continue, an Israeli soldier walks past a house destroyed by Hamas in Kibbutz Be’eri on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023
‘Merkava’ battle tanks pictured at a gathering site at an undisclosed location along the border with Gaza on October 14
The Nova music festival was one of the first locations to be targeted by Hamas, with the sudden attack on Saturday leading Israel to declare war on the terror group.
A blizzard of missiles have rained down on the Gaza Strip in the week since in a brutal retaliation, as the IDF extended its deadline for residents to flee to allow over a million people to try and escape.
Many Palestinians are struggling to escape from areas targeted by the Israeli military while grappling with a growing water crisis after Israel stopped the flow of resources to the region.
Hamas terrorists have urged civilians to ignore the evacuation order and some are refusing to leave, with Mahmoud Shalabi – director of Medical Aid for Palestinians – saying ‘no place was safe in Gaza’ and he hoped to ‘die with dignity’.
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