"Bashed With Gun, I Played Dead": Israeli Survivor Narrates Hamas Attack

On October 7, 2023, the world watched in horror as Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. That day, Mazal Tazazo and her two friends--Daniel Cohen and Yohai Ben Zecharia-- had gone to the Supernova music festival, held at the Negev Desert near the Gaza-Israel border, to unwind. They were enjoying the party when suddenly sirens went off around, with gunshots ringing in the air. 

At that moment, hundreds of Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israeli territory, with some parachuting near the festival. Suddenly, the music went off, and security forces asked the festival revellers to leave the area. 

The 35-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli Tazazo and her two friends, along with hundreds of others, took to the main road near the desert to escape the attackers. But they couldn't run far before terrorists soon caught up to them and killed her two friends. A terrorist bashed Tazazo's head with a gun, but she survived by pretending to be dead and was left in a burning field. She escaped to live for her 11-year-old son.

"(It was) miracle. I was playing dead. I had the luck (on my side). My hand was hurt and I was full of blood. They thought I was dead," she said, showing the physical scars of her horror on her head and hand. 

Recounting the horror, she said her friends were murdered next to her. "It's crazy. Yohai was only 23 and Daniel was only 25," she said.

Tazazo recalled that while she was lying in the bushes-- bruised and bloodied-- she felt someone trying to shackle her legs. 

"I kept pretending to be dead. I felt someone touching my legs and started to tie me with ropes. Then the other man came and they started to talk in Arabic. One of them came over to me to see if I was dead. He probably assumed I was dead and left me on the ground," she said. 

That ordeal lasted for eight hours before she was rescued by other festival goers and taken to the hospital. 

She remembered seeing a policeman and wanting to follow him, but didn't. She later came to know that most people in that area died. 

"Most of the policemen there were killed. The policeman that I saw, I tried to find (later), but didn't succeed. I don't know if he's dead or if he survived, but I think of him a lot...I remember how he looked. he didn't know how to help me, and he was frustrated," she said. 

When asked what gives her the strength to speak out about what happened, Tazazo said, "My son. He's 11 years old. I want to make sure he lives in a safe world. Now we don't live in a safe world."

Over 360 young people were killed at the Supernova festival that morning, part of a wider assault by Hamas and affiliated terror groups on Israeli communities near the Gaza border. In total, Israeli authorities say 1,195 people were killed that day, including 736 civilians and 379 members of the Israeli security forces. At least 251 others were abducted and taken into Gaza.