I walked up the hill to the main stage area of the Nova Festival site knowing we were entering a murderous scene the world has heard so much about but has yet to fully understand.
As I passed bullet-ridden cars where people trying to escape were gunned down; burnt-out cars where some young people had tried to hide; and past camping chairs, sleeping bags, roll mats and unopened snacks, it struck me that it seemed almost suspended in time.
Colourful tents flap in the breeze and bars with bottles of whiskey left as the massacre began haven’t been touched.
It’s taken days to get access to the Nova Festival site; the authorities have been collecting the bodies of more than 250 young men and women killed here.
Throughout our wait, they told us it was simply too dangerous.
The site is remote and on public land between two kibbutzim – Be’eri and Re’im – both of which were attacked like the festival on Saturday morning.
Hamas, it seems, came determined to abduct people, but mainly to murder them. And these locations constitute the worst terror attacks in Israel’s history.
At the festival campsite, teams of recovery specialists are conducting fingertip searches for human remains burnt during the attack.
Stunned looking soldiers are making their way through the site, checking for personal belongings and potential booby traps left by the Hamas raiding party.
The cars that people tried to escape in but found themselves trapped in litter the entire festival site.
Some cars are burnt beyond recognition, others are riddled with bullets.
The cars that have been checked for booby traps are marked with a blue X. The ones that have yet to be checked by the bomb squad are marked with a yellow one.
It’s eery and it’s tense.
Suddenly we hear one gunshot, followed shortly after by another. We start to hear lots of shouting and see soldiers running toward the outer edge of the festival site.
A suspected Hamas militant has appeared, brandishing a knife.
Machine guns raised and pointing at him, he is told to undress – they worry he has a suicide vest on.
Once he is undressed, he is forced to the floor, blindfolded, and his hands bound.
Other soldiers take defensive positions to protect their colleagues – there could easily be more Hamas militants still hiding.
This type of encounter has been happening since Saturday in southern Israel and shows just how volatile the situation still is.
And even now after another day, more troops are being deployed to this and many other sites.
Only Hamas knows how many of their assassins remain inside this country.
“The reason we have so many forces here is because this whole area is still dangerous – we waited an hour on the outskirts of this area because they were afraid there are still terrorists here,” an Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson told me.
“We’re here under guard, but we have to let people do their jobs. People were massacred here, there is a reason to be on high alert.”
The festival was abruptly stopped when rockets started exploding around the partygoers.
Many decided to stay where they were and others joined traffic queues trying to leave, but then the shooting started.
Many simply didn’t stand a chance.
We came across Anel, one of the festival organisers, who was packing up the equipment he had left behind and loading it into his pick-up truck and trailer.
He is a survivor. He says it’s a miracle he is alive, and that the attack was lightning quick.
I asked him how he got away.
“We were just on autopilot you know, pure instinct, this is what I can say about myself, but a lot of friends, a lot of people, didn’t make it…” his voice trails off.
This is a massive crime scene of course and Israel is promising to avenge the deaths of its young people.
But for the many families of those young people murdered here, time may really feel like it has stopped.
Russia launched a large drone attack on Kyiv overnight, with Volodymyr Zelenskyy warning the attack shows his capital needs better air defences.
Ukraine’s air defence units shot down 50 of 73 Russian drones launched, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries as a result of the attacks.
Russia has used more than 800 guided aerial bombs and around 460 attack drones in the past week.
Warning that Ukraine needs to improve its air defences, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “An air alert has been sounded almost daily across Ukraine this week”.
“Ukraine is not a testing ground for weapons. Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state.
“But Russia still continues its efforts to kill our people, spread fear and panic, and weaken us.”
Russia did not comment on the attack.
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It comes as Russian media reported that Colonel General Gennady Anashkin, the commander of the country’s southern military district, had been removed from his role over allegedly providing misleading reports about his troops’ progress.
While Russian forces have advanced at the fastest rate in Ukraine since the start of the invasion, forces have been much slower around Siversk and the eastern region of Donetsk.
Russian forces have reportedly captured a British man while he was fighting for Ukraine.
In a widely circulated video posted on Sunday, the man says his name is James Scott Rhys Anderson, aged 22.
He says he is a former British Army soldier who signed up to fight for Ukraine’s International Legion after his job.
He is dressed in army fatigues and speaks with an English accent as he says to camera: “I was in the British Army before, from 2019 to 2023, 22 Signal Regiment.”
He tells the camera he was “just a private”, “a signalman” in “One Signal Brigade, 22 Signal Regiment, 252 Squadron”.
“When I left… got fired from my job, I applied on the International Legion webpage. I had just lost everything. I just lost my job,” he said.
“My dad was away in prison, I see it on the TV,” he added, shaking his head. “It was a stupid idea.”
In a second video, he is shown with his hands tied and at one point, with tape over his eyes.
He describes how he had travelled to Ukraine from Britain, saying: “I flew to Krakow, Poland, from London Luton. Bus from there to Medyka in Poland, on the Ukraine border.”
Russian state news agency Tass reported that a military source said a “UK mercenary” had been “taken prisoner in the Kursk area” of Russia.
The UK Foreign Office said it was “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention”.
The Ministry of Defence has declined to comment at this stage.
The body of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been found, Israel has said.
Zvi Kogan, the Chabad representative in the UAE,went missing on Thursday.
A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s office on Sunday said the 28-year-old rabbi was murdered, calling it a “heinous antisemitic terror incident”.
“The state of Israel will act with all means to seek justice with the criminals responsible for his death,” it said.
The Emirati government gave no immediate acknowledgment that Mr Kogan had been found dead. Its interior ministry has described the rabbi as being “missing and out of contact”.
“Specialised authorities immediately began search and investigation operations upon receiving the report,” the interior ministry said.
Mr Kogan lived in the UAE with his wife Rivky, who is a US citizen. He ran a Kosher grocery store in Dubai, which has been the target of online protests by pro-Palestinian supporters.
The Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of Orthodox Judaism, said Mr Kogan was last seen in Dubai.
Israeli authorities reissued their recommendation against all non-essential travel to the UAE and said visitors currently there should minimise movement and remain in secure areas.
The rabbi’s disappearance comes as Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the two countries traded fire in October.
While the Israeli statement on Mr Kogan did not mention Iran, Iranian intelligence services have previously carried out kidnappings in the UAE.
The UAE diplomatically recognised Israel in 2020. Since then, synagogues and businesses catering to kosher diners have been set up for the burgeoning Jewish community but the unrest in the Middle East has sparked deep anger in the country.