NEGEV DESERT, Israel — They were doing what young adults love to do — listening to their trance music, dancing, and generally having a party.But in the early morning hours of Oct. 7, 2023 the Nova Music Festival turned to hell on Earth.Hundreds of bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists poured into the music festival that was hosting around 3,500 visitors. Some arrived in makeshift paragliders.In a matter of hours, 378 people were killed in an orgy of violence by Hamas terrorists. About 44 people were kidnapped back to Gaza, five kilometres away. Women were raped.It was the worst Israeli civilian massacre ever..The eyes of the terrorists — all hopped up on the drug Captagon, a synthetic stimulant combining amphetamine and theophylline — must have lit up at the target of opportunity. Hamas had no idea it was happening there as the site was only chosen two days earlier.Their original target was the city of Netivot, but they changed plans after seeing the festivalThe slaughter was indiscriminate and a horror to watch. The Western Standard was with a select group of Canadian journalists who viewed a classified film of Hamas in action, compiled with their body cams and the cell phone footage of the victims.A real-time snuff film of the worst kind..An alarm blared over the site at 7 a.m. causing concert goers to flee in panic.Terrorists fired randomly into porta-potties where terrified young men and women desperately tried to hide.They were blown up by grenades as they took shelter in a nearby bomb shelter.They were cut down by automatic weapons in the hands of 5,500 terrorists who poured across the border from Gaza that terrible day.The body of a murdered woman, Shani Louk, 22, was thrown in the back of a pickup truck, clad only in underwear, was driven back into Gaza. The gunmen screamed "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as residents spit on the body..Video taken that day shows Israelis running for their lives across dusty fields of the Negev desert and nearby farm land.Those who escaped by car may have thought they were safe. They weren't.Early in the attack, terrorists had blocked highways by opening fire, and killing motorists. Their crashed vehicles formed a bottleneck where more people were slaughtered.By 8 a.m. the site had been 90% evacuated, with thousands streaming through agricultural fields to safety.At 10:20 a.m., Palestinians unrelated to Hamas streamed out of Gaza into the site and began looting bodies.At 11:50 a.m., the IDF finally arrived and engaged the remaining terrorists. By 3 p.m., the site was declared safe..There were tales of tremendous heroism.One young man made repeated trips back to the site to rescue people in his vehicle by driving them to safety across the farm fields.Sadly he was cut down as he made a final rescue effort.Others hid for hours in nearby bush.Twenty people hid inside an ambulance at the site. A terrorist hit it with a rocket-propelled grenade, killing 18..Nearby members of the Israeli Defence Forces were able to kill 20 terrorists as they cleared the area.Prime Minister Mark Carney paid tribute to the victims of Nova this weekend in Toronto, as he visited an exhibition set up to tell the story of the victims."Young Israeli revellers came together that day to dance and celebrate, and were targeted by inconceivable violence," tweeted Carney."I came to witness accounts of the atrocities committed — and hear directly from survivors and families of those murdered and taken hostage.""We can't look away from this hate, or from the rise in antisemitism we've seen in Canada since. We will fight to protect Jewish communities at home, and advocate for long-term peace and security in the Middle East.".The Nova Exhibition runs in Toronto until June 22.It tells the haunting story of how Oct. 7, 2023 was the day the music died for 378 young people.Naylor and the other media had their trip to Israel sponsored by the Exigent foundation, dedicated to fostering knowledge regarding the threat posed by extremism to liberal, western democracies.
