Israel’s Supernova festival descended into chaos after Hamas gunmen stormed the desert event, killing hundreds of partygoers and kidnapping others in one of the militant group’s deadliest attacks.
Dashcam footage showed a man being shot inside the site while another video appeared to show the moment a 25-year-old woman begged not to be killed as she was taken.
Using pictures and videos from social media and other witness testimony, Sky News has pieced together what we know so far about the assault and how the festival once described as a celebration of “love and infinite freedom” turned into a massacre.
More than 260 bodies have been recovered from the festival, according to Israeli rescue service Zika following the attack by the militant group Hamas.
Held just 5km (three miles) from the Israel-Gaza border in the Negev desert in southern Israel, the Supernova trance festival began on Friday evening with thousands of young people attending.
Gunfire and panic
Festivalgoers were seen dancing to bass music under colourful tents and fairy lights in one of the main areas before the camera panned to smoke rising in the distance – marked by six grey clouds in the sky.
We know the first video, taken by one attendee, was filmed in the early hours of Saturday before sunrise which was at around 6.40am.
We know this due to the natural light and we’ve located various clips shared online using satellite imagery which marks the festival stage and main dance areas.
Witnesses reported hearing rocket fire in the distance, but some ravers didn’t hear explosions over the loud music.
Shortly after the music was stopped, around 6.30am, announcements were made and security staff began ushering people away from the stages.
Videos showed some people leaving hurriedly, appearing confused but not yet in panic.
With the sound of gunfire, people were seen frantically running into the surrounding fields to escape. We located one video to one of the fields east of the site across the road.
North of the festival, footage showed Israeli security forces and local police setting up a perimeter and fighting positions as festivalgoers took cover.
Man killed inside festival site
The assault also involved killings as dashcam footage from a vehicle at the site showed Hamas militants taking a man away inside the festival site.
Someone was seen moving at the back of the car before a man approached him and shot him.
Two men appeared in a video wearing similar logos to Hamas fighters
The markings on this man’s headband appeared to match the Hamas logo, and the location of the site according to the dashcam coordinate was also matched by a festival tent which appeared in the background.
The timestamp on the video indicates that the footage was captured approximately three hours after the militants appeared on the scene.
Festivalgoer kidnapped
But 25-year-old Noa Argamani did not manage to escape.
A video appeared to show the woman being kidnapped and manhandled on a motorbike as she reached out towards her boyfriend being marched alongside on foot.
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Moment woman kidnapped by Hamas fighters
Several other people have also been taken hostage by Hamas, the Israel Defence Forces said.
Later, a video was released appearing to show Ms Argamani sat on her own, drinking water. We have not been able to locate where this was and when it was taken.
A reported 900 Israelis and 576 Palestinians have been killed after Hamas carried out attacks over the weekend and in retaliatory strikes by Israel.
More than 260 bodies have been recovered from the festival, according to rescuers
It marks just one of their assaults on Israel, prompting a fierce response by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu including hundreds of airstrikes on Gaza which Hamas controls.
In response, Israel has also ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza – with no fuel, food, water or electricity allowed in.
Additional reporting by Olive Enokido-Lineham, OSINT producer.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
