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As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally launched a war against Hamas militants, videos allegedly showing the latter paragliding into the Supernova festival in Israel went viral online. A witness also said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 that “50 terrorists arrived in vans, dressed in military uniforms.” Netizens have since taken to social media to express distress over the video.
The Supernova music festival is an all-day and all-night celebration that is held in southern Israel. Yaniv, an emergency medic at the venue, told Kan News that there were 3000 people at the event. Now, officials have confirmed that 250 bodies have been recovered from the festival, with the death toll nearing 1000 in Israel.
X (formerly known as Twitter) user @CollinRugg took to the social networking site to show a TikTok video of Hamas militants allegedly paragliding into the festival grounds. The netizen stated:
“The terrorist reportedly entered the festival and began shooting those in attendance.”
The Twitter user also claimed that Fox News reported that the paragliders arrived at a military base located in Southern Israel.
In a TikTok video uploaded by @yuuuot3, festival goers were seen dancing and rejoicing. The camera then panned upwards, where one could see multiple paragliders. No commotion was recorded in the video. However, it is possible that matters took a turn when the Hamas militants, who were allegedly on the paragliders, landed.
At the time of writing this article, the video on Twitter had amassed over 3.5 million views.
“This is absolutely mind boggling”: Netizens traumatized as alleged Hamas paragliding video goes viral
Internet users could not believe the video. Many were saddened to see how the assault on Israel citizens transpired. A few reactions to the TikTok video read:
At the time of writing this article, official sources had not confirmed that the Hamas militants entered the festival by air.
Witnesses recount Supernova festival experience
Partygoer Ortel said in an interview with Channel 12 that she was concerned after the electricity was shut down at the event. The siren, which went off around dawn, and the rockets which were fired from Gaza, left her in distress. She revealed that the gunshots began immediately after the rockets invaded the area.
Ortel recalled her horrifying experience:
“They fired bursts, and we reached a point where everyone stopped their vehicle and started running. I went into a tree, a bush like this, and they just started spraying people. I saw masses of wounded people thrown around.”
Yaniv, the emergency medic at the venue, told news outlets that he believed that it was a “planned ambush.” He also added that they must have had “intelligence information” due to the scale of the event:
“As people came out of the emergency exits, squads of terrorists were waiting for them there and just started picking them off.”
In an interview with Reuters, Esther Borochov said that the Hamas militants also threatened them to get into their vehicle. However, she said that she managed to play dead until she was rescued by the Israeli military.
Several festivalgoers have gone missing following Hamas' attack as well. Some include 26 year old British tourist Jake Marlowe, who was working as a security guard at the event, German tourist Shani Louk, who is believed to have been kidnapped, and 25-year-old Noa Argamani, who is also believed to have been taken hostage along with others.
In a response to the attack on Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu said:
“Citizens of Israel, we are at war- not in an operation, not in rounds- at war.”
In retaliation, Israel launched the “Operation Swords of Iron” which struck at numerous targets in the Gaza strip. Over 400 people, including 20 children, were killed in the same.
