Palestinian militants opened fire on thousands on October 7th.
Photo Credit: INOR KAGNO PHOTOGRAPHY
Described as “a journey of unity and love”, the Supernova Sukkot Gathering (the first Israeli edition of Unverso Paralello) has become one of the most tragic moments in recent electronic dance music history, as Palestinian militants paragliding from Gaza stormed the location.
On Sunday night, Israeli rescue service Zaka said it had retrieved hundreds of bodies from the festival site, with Israeli authorities confirming that, at least, 260 people had been killed and many were still missing.
According to witnesses and videos collected by The Guardian, small black dots appeared in the sky. It became clear they were motorized paragliders approaching from the direction of Gaza in the west. Supernova attendees said the first rocket blast “sounded like it was part of the music”.
Then, Palestinian gunmen chased people fleeing across the desert, shooting and taking hostages. There are videos showing young Israelis being driven and marched away by militants, and there were several firing points, which meant confusion ensured.
Artist manager Raz Gaster had multiple artists playing at the electronic music festival, and in conversation with Billboard, he recalled: “Around 6:30 in the morning we started hearing explosions. We went out of the backstage and we saw a full bombardment everywhere. It was hundreds of rockets and mortars flying from everywhere and explosions all around us.”
The attack was part of a wider Hamas operation attacking Israel, called Al-Aqsa Storm by Hamas military commander Muhammad Al-Deif.
Around 3,500 people attended the festival. This is still a developing story.
