Featured Image Credit: Instagram/leesasi / SBSNews/X
Topics: News, World News, Israel
Kit Roberts
Trigger warning: This article contains distressing themes
A woman who survived the massacre at a music festival in Southern Israel has revealed that she had to hide for seven hours to escape attackers.
Lee Sasi was one of about 3,000 people who were attending the Supernova festival in the Negev desert when Palestinian militant group Hamas, which several countries including the US and UK have designated a terrorist organisation, launched an attack from Gaza in the early hours of Saturday morning (October 7).
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People who had been dancing and partying soon found themselves fleeing for their lives as gunmen descended on the site.
It's not clear at present whether Hamas militants knew the location of the festival in advance or happened upon it by accident.
At least 260 people have been confirmed to have been killed at the festival, with dozens also taken as hostages.
Sasi and seven others survived the attack by hiding underneath dead bodies for hours.
She recounted the horror in messages sent to a friend and shared with i24news.
In the messages, Sasi reveals that around 30 to 35 people had originally gone into a bomb shelter alive. But only around ten of them came out alive.
When her friend asked if that was how many people survived, she replied: "Yes after 7 hours being in hiding under dead bodies in the bomb shelters.”
She added "I'm not joking," and sent images which appear to be dead bodies stacked on each other.
Sasi described how their attackers had used grenades and firearms in their assault, saying: “The Arabs attacked the party and started shooting and throwing grenades into the bomb shelter that didn’t have any doors.
“15 grenades and 1000 bullets being shot. For seven hours straight."
Sasi went on to say that she had managed to contact relatives in Israel who then sent ex-IDF soldiers to come and rescue them.
She wrote: "We were so lucky, it was all a miracle."
Around 900 Israelis have been killed since Hamas launched the surprise attack on Israel, making this assault one of the deadliest for Israeli civilians in the country's history.
Israel has launched retaliatory air strikes in Gaza, destroying entire apartment blocks. At least 687 people in Gaza have been killed in the strikes so far, including children.
Electricity has also been cut off to the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised that Israel's response to the attack will 'change the Middle East'.
US president Joe Biden has expressed support for Israel, posting a picture of the White House lit up in the Israeli flag with the caption: "Tonight, America says clearly to the Israeli people, to the world, and to terrorists everywhere that we stand with Israel.
"That will never change."