Exclusive: Israeli Party Survivor – ‘Hamas Murdered My Friends And Left Their Kids Orphaned’
An Israeli man who survived Hamas’ attack on a psytrance music festival exactly a month ago has spoken exclusively to Lovin Malta’s Tim Diacono about how his friends were slaughtered en route to the party, leaving their two young orphaned.
Amit Musaei and his friends had bought tickets for the party last June, excited by the prospect of letting their hair down for the first time in a while.
He arrived at the campsite at around 1am, erected a tent and a few chairs and started partying.
“Beautiful people, everybody smiling and in the mindset of celebrating life, love and peace. Basically, this is what psychedelic trance music is all about,” he said.
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At around 5:30am, Amit phoned his childhood friend Adir Tamam, who was travelling to the party along with his wife Shiraz and her friend and colleague Celine Ben-David Nagar.
“I wanted to make sure they’re on their way and all good. They only cared about us and asked if we needed food, water or anything. It was very typical of them,” he said.
Little did Amit know that his world was about to turn upside down.
“When the sun started rising at around 6:30am, the music suddenly stopped,” he said. “I thought it might have been a technical issue or something, but then we hear crackling sounds.”
“My first thought was fireworks but it was weird for two reasons. Firstly you never have fireworks at psychedelic trance parties, and secondly it was already morning so it was too late for fireworks.”
It was then that Amit saw rockets flying through the sky and heard people shouting that they were being attacked from Gaza, which was on the doorstep of the festival.
“This has become a thing in Israel since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, so we are quite used to that but I have never been in such a situation so close to Gaza; I was usually at home or a safer place. Here the only hiding spot was poles that were holding the shed of the dance floor, food trucks and narrow tree branches.”
Amit ran and tried to find a place to hide, but when the attacks persisted after ten minutes, he decided to escape the festival altogether.
“We made it to the vehicle but at first it didn’t start and we didn’t fully realised what was happening,” he said. “We heard a lot of booming and saw the Iron Done active.”
“It’s spectacular to see but it’s just above your head, so shreds can fall over you and kill you immediately, they’re huge pieces of metal.”
Amit’s car eventually started and he sped off eastwards towards his hometown of Holon, driving through the wreckage of cars that had been gunned down by Hamas fighters. After around 13km, he reached a building that could serve as a shelter, got out of the vehicle and was immediately fired upon by a heavy machine gun.
It was only after escaping and speaking to other people hiding there that he fully realised what was going on, and that Hamas terrorists had broken into Israel.
While Amit managed to escape with his life, Adir, Shiraz and Celine weren’t so lucky. As they were driving to the party, they heard a missile alarm and hid at a concrete shelter in the Gaza Envelope that Israel had built due to recurring attacks.
According to another survivor who witnessed what hapeene, the Hamas fighters were aware of this shelter and tossed a grenade inside, killing Shiraz, Celine and a third person. The grenade smoke forced Adir out of the shelter, where he was immediately shot in the head and killed.
“Adir and Shiraz were parents of two young daughters, Goshen and Gili, who happen to be my own daughter’s best friends,” Amit said.
“I’ve known Adir since I was 14 years old and we became best friends over the past 20 years. I’m now 40 and he just recently celebrated his 40th birthday.”
“He focused all his life on giving to others, he used to help out in centres for people with disabilities and used to give swimming lessons to children in the very early stages of life.”
“Shiraz was focused on living a peaceful life. She loved being in the wild and nature, caring for her family, and educating her beautiful daughters. She had two jobs, as a secretary at a law firm and a swimming teacher for people with disabilities. They both really liked the water and all our vacations together were always by a water source. We will miss them a lot.”
“Celine was Shiraz’ very good friend and colleague. She was married and had just finished her vacation leave after giving birth to Eli, who is now six months old.”
Amit’s focus has now turned towards helping raise funds for Goshen and Gili, who suddenly lost both their parents in such a brutal manner.
“The Israeli government is currently in total chaos, offices aren’t really functioning and I can’t find anyone to speak to,” he said.
“I’m a tour guide but I haven’t been working since the war broke out and people won’t immediately come back to visit Israel. Since government offices aren’t completely functioning, I’m not sure I can find support from them in the current state.”
“We wouldn’t want them to just receive minimal funding either. We want them to have a good life, we want to promise them the life their parents promised them.”