‘It was a massacre:’ Woman recounts escape from Israeli music festival after Hamas attack
Sharon Truzman was dancing until dawn, a night out with her friends at a concert in the desert in southern Israel. The music festival, known as Nova, was touted as an evening filled with peace and love, but ended in horrific bloodshed, death and terror.
Around 6:30 a.m., festival goers heard the first of the missiles. Then, gunshots started cracking. That’s when Truzman, 26, and her friends started running.
“They were surrounding us; they were coming from everywhere,” she said Monday in Miami. “We didn’t know what to do.”
“We knew it was groups,” she said, recalling what she heard during the first moments of the attack. “There were thousands of terrorists coming to us and trying to kill us. That’s how it felt. That they were coming for us.”
Truzman told her story at an event hosted by the Consul General of Israel in Miami, Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, who met with some members of the Miami-Dade legislative delegation to brief them on the Israel-Gaza war and discuss Florida’s efforts to combat growing antisemitism.
“This is the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” said Elbaz-Starinsky.
Republican Florida lawmakers, including Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez and Reps. Vicki Lopez, Alex Rizo, Alexis Calatayud, Juan Carlos Porras and Alina Garcia, were also there, showing support for Israel.
“I want to send a very strong message, you are safe here in Florida,” said Lopez. “We will not stand for any misbehavior or any antisemitism.”
Truzman was one of thousands of people at the Oct. 7 music festival who ran for their lives as Hamas gunmen crossed into Israel from Gaza and stormed the festival site. Hamas, a Palestinian group that the United States and European Union have designated a terrorist organization, killed at least 260 people at the festival site and have taken more than 200 people hostage.
The attacks have led to a war between Israel and Hamas, resulting in over 1,400 Israeli deaths and over 5,000 Palestinian deaths, according to AP News.
Truzman said initially the festival goers didn’t know what was happening.
“Missiles are unfortunately normal in Israel, so people are used to it,” Truzman said. “But when we started hearing the gunshots, we started running.”
Truzman ran for over an hour and a half into the desert. At some point, she tried to hide in cars, but decided to keep running. She was beginning to believe she might not make it out alive, she said.
“It was hopeless. I just felt hopeless,” she said. “But I decided to run and try to live somehow.”
After the gun shots died down, Truzman got into a car with a handful of other survivors and found her way out.
“It was like a miracle — really,” she said, adding that many people tried to hide in cars that were later raided and burned by Hamas. Some attendees pretended to be dead. Many were gunned down by Hamas militants as they tried to escape.
“No one knew what to do,” Truzman said. “No one is prepared for this kind of situation.”
Truzman, who is originally from Venezuela and whose mother lives in Miami, has lived in Israel for over eight years. She knew her decisions led to her survival, but she recognizes that she easily could have been among the hundreds of festival-goers who were not as lucky. Two of Truzman’s friends survived, but she said she knows at least 10 people who didn’t make it out alive. She also has friends who were kidnapped by Hamas.
Looking back from the car on her way out, Truzman saw billows of black smoke rising above her.
“I don’t know how burned bodies smell, but I guess that was the smell. They burned everything,” she said. “It was a disaster, literally, it was hell. It was a massacre.”
Truzman said she has learned to appreciate the important things in life. Her message to young people: Don’t worry about the material things, and hold tight onto what’s important.
“Learn how to love and learn how to be a better person,” she said. “It was a wake-up call for me. Don’t take life for granted, because you never know what can happen.”
This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and from donors comprising the South Florida Jewish and Muslim Communities, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
This story was originally published October 23, 2023 at 6:48 PM.
