Among the bullet-ridden cars and abandoned tents, a Hamas militant was hiding at the festival massacre scene
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.
The scene at the site of Nova Festival
People’s belongings are seen strewn on the ground
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.
An abandoned bar at the Nova Festival site
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.
IDF soldiers patrol the site
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.
Burnt-out cars
Cars are seen pockmarked with bullet holes
An abandoned car
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.
A man is apprehended at the Nova Festival
Soldiers said they feared the man may have a suicide vest
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.
Belongings abandoned in a tent by party goers
Israel ‘strikes Syrian airports’; 447 children killed in Gaza – Israel-Gaza latest
“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.
A survivor of the massacre
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.
That Saturday morning will never be forgotten.
World
‘Almost like a game of target practice’: British surgeon says IDF shooting Gazans at aid points
A British surgeon who recently returned from Gaza has told Sky News that there is “profound malnutrition” among the population – and claims IDF soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points “like a game of target practice”.
Dr Nick Maynard spent four weeks working inside Nasser Hospital, where a lack of food has left medics struggling to treat children and toddlers.
The conditions inside the hospital, in the south of the Strip, have been documented in a Sky News report.
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Malnourished girl: ‘The war changed me’
Dr Maynard told The World with Yalda Hakim: “I met several doctors who had cartons of formula feed in their luggage – and they were all confiscated by the Israeli border guards. Nothing else got confiscated, just the formula feed.
“There were four premature babies who died during the first two weeks when I was in Nasser Hospital – and there will be many, many more deaths until the Israelis allow proper food to get in there.”
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
In other developments:
• Israel and the US have recalled their teams from Gaza ceasefire talks
• US envoy Steve Witkoff has accused Hamas “of failing to act in good faith”
• France has announced that it will recognise the state of Palestine
• An influential group of MPs is calling on the UK to “immediately” do the same
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‘Starvation used as a weapon’
‘They were shells’
Dr Nick Maynard has been going to Gaza for the past 15 years – and this is his third visit to the territory since the war began.
The British surgeon added that virtually all of the kids in the paediatric unit of Nasser Hospital are being fed with sugar water.
“They’ve got a small amount of formula feed for very small babies, but not enough,” he warned.
Dr Maynard said the lack of aid has also had a huge impact on his colleagues.
“I saw people I’d known for years and I didn’t recognise some of them,” he added. “Two colleagues had lost 20kg and 30kg respectively. They were shells, they’re all hungry.
“They’re going to work every day, then going home to their tents where they have no food.”
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Ex-Gaza aid worker claims personnel shot at Palestinians
IDF ‘shooting Gazans at aid points’
Elsewhere in the interview, Dr Maynard claimed Israeli soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points “almost like a game of target practice”.
He has operated on boys as young as 11 who had been “shot at food distribution points” run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
“They had gone to get food for their starving families and they were shot,” he said.
“I operated on one 12-year-old boy who died on the operating table because his injuries were so severe.”
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Gaza deaths increase when aid sites open
Dr Maynard continued: “What was even more distressing was the pattern of injuries that we saw, the clustering of injuries to particular body parts on certain days.
“One day they’d be coming in predominately with gunshot wounds to the head or the neck, another day to the abdomen.
“Twelve days ago, four young teenage boys came in, all of whom had been shot in the testicles and deliberately so.
“The clustering was far too obvious to be accidental, and it seemed to us like this was almost like a game of target practice.
“I would never have believed this possible unless I’d witnessed this with my own eyes.”
Palestinians brought to Nasser Hospital after being shot by Israeli forces, according to hospital officials and eyewitnesses. Pic: AP
Sky News has contacted the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.
An IDF spokesperson previously told Sky News it “strongly rejected” the accusations that its forces were instructed to deliberately shoot at civilians.
“To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians,” the spokesperson said, adding that the incidents are “being examined by the relevant IDF authorities”.
Read more:
Medics at Nasser hospital struggle to feed children
Gaza food situation ‘worst its ever been’
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Israeli military show aid waiting inside Gaza
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been managing the supply of aid to Gaza since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade in May.
It has four aid distribution sites, all of which are located in Israeli military zones, with journalists prohibited from entering.
More than 1,000 people have been reported killed while trying to receive food aid since the GHF took over, according to the UN.
UNRWA, its relief agency for Gaza, has heavily criticised the scheme.
Commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said: “The so-called ‘GHF’ distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap. Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they are given a licence to kill.”
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Just a fraction of the aid trucks needed are making it into the enclave, the UN has said, while multiple aid groups and the World Health Organisation have warned Gazans are facing “mass starvation”.
Mr Lazzarini quoted a colleague on Thursday and said malnourished Palestinians in the Gaza “are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses”.
Eleven Thai civilians and a soldier have been killed in clashes between Thailand and Cambodia, officials have said, as long-standing tensions in disputed border areas boiled over into open conflict.
Among those killed was an eight-year-old boy, the army said in a statement.
It said most casualties occurred in Si Sa Ket province, where six people were killed after shots were fired at a fuel station.
Smoke and fire in the Kantharalak district in Thailand amid clashes between Thailand and Cambodia. Pic: Army Region 2 via Facebook/Reuters
Another 14 people have been injured in three Thai border provinces.
Thailand’s health minister Somsak Thepsuthin confirmed the fatalities to reporters, adding Cambodia’s actions, including an attack on a hospital, should be considered war crimes.
Both countries accuse one another of starting the military clashes and have downgraded their diplomatic relations in the rapidly escalating dispute. Thailand has also sealed all land border crossings with Cambodia.
Early on Thursday, a Thai F-16 fighter jet bombed targets in Cambodia, according to Thailand’s army.
“We have used air power against military targets as planned,” Thai army deputy spokesperson Richa Suksuwanon said.
Cambodia’s defence ministry said Thai jets had dropped bombs on a road near the ancient Preah Vihear temple, saying it “strongly condemns the reckless and brutal military aggression of the Kingdom of Thailand against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia”.
What has caused Thailand-Cambodia border clashes?
Thai people who fled clashes take shelter in Surin province. Pic: AP
Fighting has taken place in disputed border areas
‘Civilian areas targeted’
Clashes are ongoing in at least six areas along the border, the Thai defence ministry said.
Thailand’s foreign ministry said Cambodian troops fired “heavy artillery” on a Thai military base on Thursday morning and also targeted civilian areas, including a hospital.
“The Royal Thai Government is prepared to intensify our self-defence measures if Cambodia persists in its armed attack and violations upon Thailand’s sovereignty,” the ministry said in a statement.
A livestream video from Thailand’s side showed people, including children and the elderly, running from their homes and hiding in a concrete bunker as explosions sounded.
The clash happened in an area where the ancient Prasat Ta Muen Thom temple stands along the border between Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province.
Thai people who fled clashes in Surin province, northeastern Thailand. Pic: AP
‘Conflict not spreading’
Thailand’s acting premier said fighting must first stop before peace talks can start.
Caretaker Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters there had been no declaration of war and conflict was not spreading into more provinces.
He said Cambodia had fired heavy weapons into Thailand without any specific targets, resulting in civilian deaths.
Earlier on Thursday, Cambodia downgraded diplomatic relations with Thailand to their lowest level, expelled the Thai ambassador and recalled all Cambodian staff from its embassy in Bangkok.
The day before, its neighbour withdrew its ambassador and expelled the top Cambodian diplomat in protest after five Thai soldiers were wounded in a land mine blast, one of whom lost part of a leg.
A week earlier, a land mine in a different contested area exploded and wounded three Thai soldiers, including one who lost a foot.
Relations between the southeast Asian neighbours have collapsed after a Cambodian soldier was killed in an armed confrontation in a disputed border area in May.
Read more on Sky News:
UK’s ‘tough choices’
‘Man-made starvation’ in Gaza
Man ‘scarred’ by Trump max security prison
Nationalist passions on both sides have further inflamed the situation, and Thailand’s prime minister was suspended earlier this month as an investigation was opened into possible ethics violations over her handling of the border dispute.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Border disputes are longstanding issues that have caused periodic tensions between the countries. The most prominent and violent conflicts have been around the 1,000-year-old Preah Vihear temple.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice recognised Cambodian sovereignty over the temple area.
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