IDF platoon staff sergeant recounts terror at music festival in Israel: ‘We were butchered’

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An Israeli man is fighting alongside his military brothers and sisters after surviving the attack on the Tribe of Nova festival in Israel, just over three miles from the Gaza Strip.

On the early morning of Saturday, October 7, Hamas terrorists paraglided into, and drove across, the Gaza-Israel border with the intention to kill Jewish festival attendees. At least 260 civilians at the concert were murdered, and at least 1,400 civilians have been killed in a barrage of airstrike attacks around Israel.

At least 199 people were kidnapped and taken as hostages into Gaza. Some of the innocent abductees included party-goers from the festival. A video posted to social media showed a China-born Israeli student, Noa Argamani, being driven away by Hamas terrorists on the back of a motorcycle. In the video, you can see her reaching out for her boyfriend, who is being held at gunpoint.

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Aviv Mor, 26 of Zichron Yaakov, is a platoon staff sergeant in the IDF and recounted his experience from that early morning massacre to Fox News Digital.

Oketz K-9 unit being briefed by officer. The unit saved 200 Israelis during Hamas attacks last week. (IDF Spokesman’s Unit)

“It was like hell on earth,” Mor said. He was taking part in what had been anticipated to be fun festivities celebrating life, with his cousin, his cousin’s girlfriend and two other friends. The group arrived at the festival grounds around midnight, just mere hours before atrocities would be committed on Israeli people. What Mor describes as the peak of the festival was when attendees heard gunshots and missiles and realized they were being fired upon.

Mor served in the Israeli Defense Forces five years ago in Gaza and is aware of scenarios such as this. He explained that the scale of the rockets and artillery was unlike anything he has experienced before in combat.

As the group piled into the car and drove off in hopes of saving their lives, they were ambushed by terrorists. Again, turning the wheel and moving in the opposite direction, the group were ambushed and fired upon by terrorists. Mor described seeing hundreds of civilians running for their lives everywhere, through fields, valleys and bushes.

“But it wasn’t enough,” he said. “Every place we went, every place we hid, we heard shots, we heard people suffering. The feeling was hopeless, you know?” In the sky, Mor recalled an IDF helicopter doing roundabouts, unsure of what to do, but not because of inexperience or lack of strength. It was clear to Mor that the helicopter operator was hoping to avoid firing upon civilians fleeing to save themselves.

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Mor can recall the battle cry of the Hamas terrorists and describes it as a “roar like lions, but demonic.”

An Israeli flag flies over body bags of over 20 dead Hamas militants with the word “terrorist” written in Hebrew, on a main field at Kibbutz Be’eri, where dozens of civilians were killed days earlier near the border with Gaza on October 11, 2023, in Be’eri, Israel. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

He said that killing was everywhere and that terrorists had infiltrated on motorcycles, in trucks, running, reaching out to everyone they could slaughter.

At one point, Mor found himself separated from his group and alone. He used every survival instinct he knew to escape. He called his uncle and provided Fox News Digital with the recording of the call. Part of the harrowing transcript is as follows:

Uncle: “Do you have friends with a gun?”

Aviv: “I’m alone. I’m alone.”

Uncle: “Try to hide somewhere.” 

Aviv: “I’m running away. I ran from there. Shema Yisrael, Shema Yisrael.”

Uncle: “How many terrorists are there? Do you see the terrorists?

Aviv: “I DON’T KNOW! I DON’T KNOW!”

Uncle: “Keep yourself alive. Keep yourself alive.”

“I can’t explain what happened, really,” Mor said to Fox. “It was the scariest thing I ever encountered.”

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Mor, with past and present military experience, tried to assist in the survival of others around him. One young woman in particular had a broken leg. He tried to help her get to a hidden place, but he is unsure of her fate and hopes to find out whether she survived.

“I saw people next to me get fired upon by snipers, like precision fire on them,” he said. “They just fell to the ground like they were butchered. We were butchered.” Mor told himself that he would keep moving, no matter what.

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Eventually, he encountered a car with Israeli people. The driver was moving slowly enough for Mor to catch up to it and jump inside. Before making it to safety, the car full of passengers saw a terrorist in an IDF uniform come up against two police officers.

“The cops shot the terrorist in the head,” Mor said. “It was crazy. It was really crazy to see.”

The driver took Mor far enough to reach a police station, where he leapt out of the car and went inside. The car full of Israeli people were complete strangers to him, and he is unsure as to where they are or what happened to them.

Mor recounted hearing of the events in the kibbutzim where there were reports of beheaded babies.

Israeli forces establish heavily armed control points along the border as Israel tightens measures by the army, police and other security forces after Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in Sderot, Israel. (Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

“Jesus Christ, you know, that was insane,” he said. “The children, the families, the elderly, kidnapping, beheading, raping. Who does that?”

He went on, with shaking hands, to express his disgust for the slaughtering of Israeli people in the state by Hamas terrorists.

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“For what, for what case? For Palestine? That’s for Palestine?” He shakily shamed the terror organization and explained that neither he, nor Israel, will forget or forgive the events of the latest war between Hamas and Israel.

And to those who do not support Israel in this fight or do not give credence to the atrocities and current events, Mor invites you to come to Be’eri, come to the kibbutzim and see for yourself the massacring of Israeli people.

“Get on a plane and see.”

Gabriele Regalbuto is an SEO editor at Fox News Digital. Gabriele has a Journalism and Communications degree from West Virginia University. She has worked to produce content for newspapers, magazines, and digital platforms. At Fox, she has assisted in coverage of breaking news events including the 2024 presidential cycle, 2022 midterm elections, Queen Elizabeth II’s death, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.