The Iron Lions

I've attended many of these rave parties, but I decided this one was going to be my last. The party allowed me to have fun and disconnect from everything”. Bitshu is reconstructing the hours before the attack, when she was still dancing in an open field surrounded by good friends. I went to the party with two friends and the spouse of one of them. It began at 11:00 PM, and it was an amazing night. I met a lot of friends, it was fun, great atmosphere and I was excited because this was an event I was looking forward to attend. The staff was very professional, there is security, everything was well organized, with permits are in place, so I felt safe.” The Nova party near moshav Reim was planned to last until 4:00 PM, but people noticed signs of rockets flying overhead around 6:00 AM. We didn't hear the alarms because of the music, but when people pointed to the sky, the sound was quickly lowered. At first, I tried to keep calm, but at some point I felt like I was having an anxiety attack, and friends came to calm me down. When my parents called I didn't answer, because I knew they would recognize the terror in my voice. I wrote to them instead, telling them I was in a safe place, even though I was in an open field. I didn't want them to worry. At this stage everyone thought the alarm was just because of the missiles, so we stayed for almost half an hour in the field waiting for things to cool down. We were afraid the alarms would catch us in our cars, and thought that was dangerous” What she and her friends didn't know was that during that time, dozens of terrorists managed to cross the fence and proceed towards them. There were huge traffic jams at the exit”, she recalls. We suddenly saw people jumping out of cards and screaming that people were shooting at them. We quickly turned the car to the other side, but there we saw people who had abandoned their car running toward us, shouting to run for the fields. Then we heard gunfire. My friend decided to stay near the car, even though I begged here to escape with me. That friend and her spouse died.” ==== I started to run alone, suddenly I saw a friend of mine from Herzelia, Ofek Mizrahi (23). We met in the past in parties through mutual friends, but the hours we spent together made him a lifelong friend.” I held his hand and we escaped. We ran like crazy. Shots fired all around us, people dropping to the ground all the time, some of them collapsing from exhaustion. In videos you don't realize how long it was. We ran almost 3 hours. Every time we ran to one direction we heard shots and ran to the other direction. On the way I fell, was bruised. At some point I thought to just stop and write a will for my family, but Ofek didn't let me give up, he told me that I must live on. No matter how many times I fell, and tried to stop, he never let go of me for a second, picked me up and helped me keep running. While running I saw many people that a moment ago were dancing and laughing, and now were struggling for their lives. A girl with a gunshot wound to her leg, and guy with his arm shot and full of blood, and a guy that fell into a pit and didn't stand up. Some people ran to save themselves, others stopped to help and paid with their lives. I kept seeing people fall down, people not surviving the run or the shooting. You run and you have no clue if you are running in the right direction or running towards the terrorists.” At a certain point, they reached the plantations near yishuv Patish. There was a water cooler there, and everyone drank and washed their faces. Someone got hold of the security forces, that told them to wait for rescue. We sat there shocked, people were in shock. You are sure this is a movie and there is no way this is really happening to you. There was a police officer with us who was also shocked. We went from greenhouse to greenhouse, trying not to get caught. We were hundreds of people. I remembered that during the run, I saw the terrorists. They were wearing soldier uniforms and held military guns, probably stolen, and it made me feels total distrust. When people told me they talked to the police, I told them to trust no one, and not share our location with anyone. After about an hour, we were transported to safety in Patish.