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Natalie Sanandaji, an American girl who escaped Hamas’ assault on an Israeli music competition October 7, recounted her harrowing expertise to Fox Information Digital and went on to say that though she’s again in america now, she doesn’t really feel protected seeing how simply “brainwashing” on social media is fueling antisemitism and anti-Israel demonstrations.
Sanandaji, a 28-year-old Jewish New Yorker born to Israeli and Iranian dad and mom, mentioned that rising up, she by no means understood how folks may enable the Holocaust to occur, till she narrowly escaped Hamas’ lethal assault firsthand and personally realized that a few of her fellow competition attendees hadn’t made it out alive, after which noticed the antisemitic messaging that adopted.
“Lots of people ask me if I really feel protected now that I am again in New York. I do not,” Sanandaji mentioned. “Loads of the issues I have been listening to and seeing since getting again. Loads of the movies of the protests. These pro-Palestinian protests. One thing I wish to say about that’s, no matter facet you are on regarding the Israeli-Palestinian battle, all the facility to you. However this isn’t about Israel-Palestine. That is about Hamas, a terrorist group who’s simply as complicit within the deaths of those harmless Palestinians as they’re within the deaths of harmless Israelis.”
“Folks want to know that this isn’t about Israel vs. Palestine,” she reiterated. “That is a couple of terrorist group attacking the Jews and killing harmless folks, killing harmless folks at a music competition, killing harmless grandmas who survived the Holocaust, simply to be killed by Hamas, burning infants alive.”
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Natalie Sanandaji shared her expertise escaping Hamas terrorists at an Israeli music competition with Fox Information Digital whereas again residence in New York. (Fox Information Digital/Danielle Wallace)
“That is not going to avoid wasting Palestine,” she added. “That is not going to free Palestine.”
Following the Hamas assault in Israel, there have been quite a lot of demonstrations and incidents around the globe
“The quantity of antisemitism I’ve seen in movies since coming again to New York, antisemitism throughout Europe and america, that scares me greater than something. For thus lengthy, as a Jew rising up in America, you are at all times taught in regards to the Holocaust, and also you’re taught about the best way our folks had been handled and the best way so many individuals simply stood by and watched because the Holocaust occurred. And also you’re taught to always remember. And my entire life, I attempted to know how may – how may the world stand by? How may the world stand by and let that occur? And it is unhappy to say that I am now beginning to notice how. And I do not really feel protected.”
Having visited Israel many occasions since she was an toddler, Sanandaji mentioned that this time she had traveled for a good friend’s wedding ceremony and determined to increase her journey to spend time with household over the Jewish vacation.
To attend the competition in Re’im, she mentioned there was an intensive vetting course of, one thing her three mates who accompanied her had been already accustomed to as a safety process. But, none of them anticipated what would observe after they returned to camp round 3 a.m. to get some shuteye earlier than the morning music set, solely to get up to the sound of a barrage of rockets.
“One of many women from our campsite got here and woke us as much as tell us that there had been some rockets that had been despatched in our route that had been intercepted by the Iron Dome [missile defense system], that the whole lot was positive, that it is regular for the realm that we’re in and that hopefully it’s going to simply be a number of, after which the get together will proceed,” Sanandaji advised Fox Information Digital. “I need folks to attempt to think about anyplace else on this planet the place a competition is happening, happening with such younger children attending, they usually see rockets being intercepted over their heads and their computerized response is, ‘Oh, that is regular due to the realm that we’re in. This occurs. It is positive.'”
However the sounds of explosions grew extra intense, she recalled, they usually realized that one thing was significantly unsuitable when competition safety shut off the music and ordered everybody to their automobiles.
This aerial image exhibits deserted and torched automobiles on the website of the October 7 assault on the Supernova desert music Pageant by Hamas militants close to Kibbutz Reim within the Negev desert in southern Israel on October 13, 2023. (JACK GUEZ/AFP through Getty Photos)
“And at this level, we nonetheless did not know that there have been terrorists on foot just some ft away from us with weapons,” Sanandaji mentioned. “I requested my mates, ‘Do you guys suppose it is okay if I’m going to the toilet earlier than we depart? We will have an extended drive. And so they’re like, ‘Yeah, it is positive. No rush. Go to the toilet.’ I’m going to the toilet, and a few days in the past I noticed a video that surfaced of the Hamas terrorists coming and capturing at these precise loos and simply capturing at each single stall, simply making an attempt to kill anyone who was inside. And that is one of many occasions because the competition occurred, the place it actually hit me how shut I used to be to loss of life. That I may have been in these stalls. If I used to be in these stalls just some moments later, I may not be right here as we speak.”
Sanandaji praised safety employees for doing their greatest to get competition attendees out, saying that the majority of them misplaced their lives within the course of. At one level, safety instructed everybody get out of their automobiles, as the large site visitors jam was an excessive amount of of a goal. Sanandaji mentioned that she and her mates took off working on foot by means of the desert.
“One of many scariest issues was working in a sure route, pondering that you just’re working to security after which instantly seeing dozens of youngsters from this competition working in your route and realizing that they are working from a terrorist, that they are working from gunshots, and that the route that you’ve got been getting into isn’t taking you to security,” she mentioned. “You do not know what resolution goes to both save your life or get you killed.”
Israeli military troopers search the stays of a torched automobile for forensic proof on the website of the October 7 assault on the Supernova desert music Pageant by Gaza militants close to Kibbutz Reim within the Negev desert in southern Israel. (JACK GUEZ/AFP through Getty Photos)
Sanandaji mentioned {that a} group of individuals inspired her mates to hitch them in hiding in a ditch, however they declined, fearing that if terrorists had been to reach, they’d haven’t any manner out. She later discovered that those that stayed there had all been killed.
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For about 4 hours, she and her mates continued working and strolling on and off between the sounds of approaching gunfire, till lastly coming to a tree for some relaxation. Recognizing an approaching white pick-up truck, they feared the worst and ready to simply accept their destiny.
“At first, we thought it was a terrorist coming to kill us. And all of us form of thought to rise up for a second, after which all of us form of simply checked out one another and realized, ‘The place are we going to run to?’” she mentioned. “So we simply sat again down, and finally when the automobile received to us, we noticed that there was a woman within the automobile who had the competition bracelet on, and we realized that this was somebody from the city of Patish who left the safety of his city and drove in the direction of the terrorists and risked his personal life to attempt to save our lives.”
Destroyed automobiles and private results are nonetheless left scattered across the Supernova Music Pageant website, the place a whole bunch had been killed, and dozens taken, by Hamas militants close to the border with Gaza, on October 13, 2023 in Kibbutz Re’im, Israel. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Photos)
They piled into his truck, and the person dropped them off in Patish earlier than instantly turning round.
“I did not actually have a probability to thank him, and he simply went straight again and risked his life over again,” Sanandaji mentioned.
As soon as in Patish, the residents there took Sanandaji and her mates in with open arms.
“The folks of this city actually got here collectively to assist us and to guard us. They put all of us within the native bomb shelter. They introduced us meals. They introduced us water. There have been folks strolling round studying off an inventory of names from their telephone despatched to them, from dad and mom and household and mates who could not get in contact with children that had been on the competition.”
Greater than 200 hostages are estimated to have been taken into Gaza by Hamas terrorists.
“Making an attempt to, like, notice that so many individuals that you just had been dancing proper subsequent to that you just had been having such a superb time with . . . you see all their faces in your head, and you then see photographs of them days later on-line, and also you notice that they didn’t come out as fortunate as you probably did,” Sanandaji mentioned. “That they’d both been killed or, worse, kidnaped. And the rationale why I say ‘worse, kidnapped’ is as a result of so many dad and mom have mentioned that after they came upon that their child was killed, they mentioned, ‘Thank God,’ as a result of being kidnapped by monsters like these and being tortured the best way that they are torturing these youngsters is, truthfully, a worse destiny than being killed by them.”
On October 7, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a shock assault on Israel from Gaza by land, sea, and air, killing over 1,300 folks and wounding round 2,800. Israeli troopers and civilians have additionally been taken hostage. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Photos)
Sanandaji mentioned she had stayed on the Patish shelter for a number of hours whereas a good friend’s uncle was struggling to drive their manner, as Israeli forces already had been speeding to safe the border. Somebody in Patish agreed to drive them to the place her good friend’s uncle was, they usually made it again to the place she had been staying. Sanandaji mentioned {that a} good friend who had managed to fly out to Israel that Sunday had given her an additional Monday ticket to Greece, and she or he had spent hours on the airport – in between emergency journeys to a bomb shelter – earlier than convincing the airline to permit her to vary the title on the ticket so she may depart the nation.
Sanandaji mentioned that being on the aircraft heading to Greece was a “very emotional” expertise.
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“I believe that was probably the most I had cried since the whole lot that had occurred,” she mentioned. “Being in that scenario, you are in a state of shock there. Everybody reacts to issues in a different way. There have been plenty of children crying whereas we had been being shot at. I used to be moreso in a state of shock. And plenty of the feelings actually hit me as I used to be on that flight leaving. I used to be leaving plenty of household and mates behind. Particularly probably the most emotional elements was leaving mates behind who had been within the competition. Who managed to outlive that competition after which had been re-enlisting within the military and risking their lives over again to guard our nation and to guard our folks.”
“It made me really feel all of the extra helpless. However since leaving and since having all these information stations attain out to me and ask me to share my story, I really feel like that is probably the most I can do to attempt to assist deliver consciousness to what occurred, and for folks to listen to it from somebody who was truly there, who witnessed the horror,” she added. “To talk for all those that had been kidnapped and killed and might’t communicate for themselves.”
Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox Information Digital protecting politics, crime, police and extra. Story suggestions may be despatched to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on Twitter: @danimwallace.
American survivor of Hamas assault on music fest returns to see anti-Israel protests in US: ‘I don’t really feel protected’
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