Slaughtered as they ran to help… by the men they hoped would save them: Hamas gunmen disguised themselves as cops – and shot Nova festival revellers who went to them for protection

A woman who escaped the Nova festival attack has described Hamas gunmen disguised as cops slaughtering people as they ran for help.

Maya P., 29, escaped death several times on Saturday morning, when members of the militant group descended on the electronic music festival near Kibbutz Re’im,  killing at least 260 people and taking captives back into Gaza.

Maya and her friend were among those scrambling to their cars to flee the site, but it quickly became clear that the only road leading to safety was shut off on both sides by terrorist blockades.

Speaking from Israel, Maya, who was a bouncer at the festival, told Bild that the terrorists who set up the blockades were disguised as police officers and soldiers.

‘People ran into them hoping to be rescued, and then they were executed,’ Maya said while crying.

A Hamas member holding a rifle at the electronic music festival near Kibbutz Re’im

The cars became a death trap for many of the festivalgoers, with militants using assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades to shoot at them. 

Maya and her boyfriend briefly sought refuge with almost 50 others in a bunker along the road. 

But their instincts told them that it wasn’t safe there.

As the gunfire persisted, they made what would turn out to be a life-changing decision and ran across the road and into the desert. 

Recalling the lead-up to the day of horror, Maya told Bild that she had ‘checked the IDs and looked every single participant in the eye as they entered’.

‘There were so many children there, born in 2003, 2004, 2005,’ Maya said.

At 6am, her shift had finished and she had changed into some more comfortable trainers for dancing.

‘That may have saved my life,’ she noted, as they helped her to escape the terror.

Thousands of young people attended the nature party, which became one of the first targets of Palestinian gunmen who breached Gaza’s border fence early on Saturday under the cover of massive rocket barrages from Gaza. 

Festivalgoers could be seen dancing in the desert at dawn on Saturday, completely unaware that within minutes members of the Hamas militant group were about to descend from the skies and inflict terror.

At 6.30am the festivalgoers heard rockets flying through the sky.

A picture taken on October 10, 2023 shows the abandoned site of the weekend attack of the Supernova desert music Festival by Palestinian militants near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev desert in southern Israel.

As rocket alarms are part of everyday life for Israelis, they did not react with alarm as they did not immediately recognise the seriousness of the situation.

Drone footage taken in the aftermath of the attack in Saturday’s early hours shows cars left at the roadside, many destroyed or pockmarked with bullet impacts. 

The war has already claimed at least 2,200 lives on both sides, as Israel has been left reeling from the Islamist group’s unprecedented ground, air and sea attacks.