I heard boyfriend take his last breath as I hid with bodies to escape Hamas on Oct 7 – who survived was Russian Roulette
AN ISRAELI survivor of the tragic Nova Music festival massacre was forced to hide in a skip and watch her boyfriend get slaughtered at the hands of sick Hamas terrorists.
Fashion model Noam Ben David, 28, was shot in the hip and legs but kept quiet as she hid under a pile of dead bodies to save herself from the bloodbath.
Her partner David Neman was among dozens slaughtered before her very eyes in a sick game of “Russian Roulette”.
She has now opened up about the harrowing experience in an interview with The Sun.
Artist Noam was invited to the Nova festival along with David to make paintings, which she enjoyed doing regularly at various music festivals.
It was during the early hours of October 7 when Hamas terrorists began their brutal campaign of terror, breaching the Gaza border from 60 different locations only to enter Israel and slaughter innocent civilians.
The atrocity left 364 revellers from the international music festival murdered and 44 others taken hostage.
At six in the morning – when the rave party was at its peak – Noam revealed she watched dozens of missiles fired from Gaza flying over the festival site in southern Israel but thought it was a fireworks display.
But reality set in when a person came towards her running and screaming: “Run! You either stay here and die or escape to save your life.”
Noam said: “I saw raging Hamas men coming towards us firing automatic shots. It was like a Russian roulette game of who gets the bullet.”
Unable to get out of the festival site due to a traffic jam, Noam, along with her boyfriend and other revellers, headed back to the festival site to hide in large skips.
“I felt my legs really heavy at the time, and David didn’t leave me for a second.
“I even fell down on my face during the running, and he fell with me, and he told me: ‘Just breathe. Don’t be panicked. I’m here with you whenever you can just get up on your feet and we continue to run.’
Like many other revellers at the festival, Noam and David were stuck at the festival site in confusion and chaos.
“As time passed by, we tried to call the police, different media organisations – even the army [IDF] but no one helped us,” She said.
“I even talked to my mum on the phone that time, our families knew nothing about the [unprecedented] attack. There was nothing on the TV.
“I told her: ‘They are going to shoot me.’
I never imagined I would have to tear a piece of cloth from a dead body just to stop the blood from flowing out of my body
Noam Ben David
“Then I saw a car explode in front of me and thick black smoke began to come out of it. That is when I realised [Hamas terrorsists] are near us. I could hear the gunshots getting louder and louder.
“And then we heard people speak in Arabic, that’s when I told David I don’t care we need to leave.
“He threw me inside the [big] trash container… there were a lot of people hiding already.
Describing the horrifying chaos, Noam added: “It was devastating. There is a girl next to you who wants to pee and her legs are all numb and she is in pain.
“You are constantly trying to explain to her that it is a matter of life and death.
“But at the same time, you’re trying to control yourself as well. You are trying to find where is your boyfriend, is he okay?”
I tried to scream but I knew I could not be heard. [David] stopped replying to me and a man nearby told me he was dead
Noam Ben David
Noam revealed how a brave David stood at the entrance of the skip, trying to figure out a way to escape all the madness.
She said: “After we realised no one was going to come and save us, David took charge of the situation.”
But time stopped for the Israeli model when she heard gunshots just outside the bin before David went silent completely.
A sobbing Noam told The Sun: “I heard David gasping for air [after he was shot]. I felt helpless as I knew I could do nothing. I knew he was dead after I heard automatic gunshots being fired near the cans.
“I tried to scream but I knew I could not be heard. He stopped replying to me and a man nearby told me he was dead.”
After the terrorists killed David, Noam was shot in her hip and leg.
She kept her eyes closed and her body still, tricking the ruthless terrorists into thinking she was dead.
After many hours of surviving immense physical pain and the traumatic experience of losing her partner, Noam was finally rescued by the IDF.
“There were 16 people inside the trash can but only four of us survived. I saw everyone getting killed in front of me after Hamas men tossed grenades inside the trash can,” she continued.
“I was shot in the hip and legs which forced me to get in a wheelchair.
“There was a guy beside me with his head down and covered in blood.
“And there was a girl on top of me whose body was riddled with seven bullets.
“I never imagined I would have to tear a piece of cloth from a dead body just to stop the blood from flowing out of my body.
“After I was rescued from the trash container by Israeli forces, I saw David’s dead body lying on the floor.
“The sun hit his beautiful face, his blonde hair was shining. He was looking like an angel.”
I had imagined a beautiful life with David. We planned on getting married. Everything changed that day
Noam Ben David
While she was hiding, Noam saw a woman in a nearby trash can raising her head and screaming “They saw me … they are coming for me” before Hamas men approached and shouted: “Allahu Akbar” and started shooting with their AK-47s.
She added: “I heard her saying please leave me, please don’t take me. I recognised her voice and it was devastating.”
The woman she was referring to was Shani Louk who was snatched from the festival and taken hostage in Gaza.
Shani’s plight became one of the most harrowing and recognisable images as the world came to terms with the atrocity on October 7.
The German-Israeli tattoo artist was last seen in harrowing footage of Hamas terrorists parading her body on the pack of a pickup truck.
It was a clip that shocked the world.
Nova Music Festival was supposed to be a celebration of “peace. love and spirituality” for thousands of revellers who attended the trance party that day.
However, all it could become was an utterly tragic event that is now etched forever in the collective psyche of Israel.
Many are still missing and at least 50 survivors have killed themselves in the aftermath, unable to cope with the haunting memories.
Nova said of the tragic massacre: “You can’t imagine the trauma.
“I had imagined a beautiful life with David. We planned on getting married. Everything changed that day.”
“But I want to get back on my feet and dance again, for David and all the angels.”
Israel believes around 101 hostages are still being held in Hamas’ evil clutches in Gaza. At least 36 of them are feared to be dead.
A total of 97 hostages remain unaccounted for after they were kidnapped by Hamas thugs a year ago.
And a further four people taken hostage in 2014 and 2015 are still being held.
According to Israeli figures, 251 Israelis and foreigners were abducted by Hamas on October 7 last year.
A group of hostages were released in November and another one in June.
The harrowing accounts from Nova Festival are retold in the documentary called Surviving October 7: We Will Dance Again.
The film shares the very telling personal stories of those who lived, those taken hostage and those who died – as confusion turned into fear, and then chaos when Hamas arrived and began to slaughter anyone in sight.
The deeply moving testimony of survivors is interspersed with unseen CCTV, mobile phone and car dashcam footage, as well as shocking GoPro footage from Hamas’ own live stream and calls to emergency services.
- Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again is on BBC iPlayer
A year of chaos in Middle East
CHAOS has eurpted acorss the Middle East since Hamas launched a brutual campaign of terror on October 7 last year.
Hundreds of terrorists stormed the border between Gaza and Israel, slaughtering over 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping hundreds more.
In the months since Israel has almost completely destroyed the strip to eradicate the group and bring home its trapped people.
More than 41,000 people in Gaza have been killed – almost 10,000 of them being children.
IDF claims at least 11,000 of them were Hamas men.
Amid the ongoing military operation, bombings and airstrikes have flattened the majority of the buildings, and the strip has been reduced to rubble.
Heavy airstrikes, the blocking of aid and the targeting of hospitals and refugee camps where the IDF says terrorists are hiding have left most of Gaza a smoking wasteland.
And for those who are still alive and crammed into parts of the tiny strip, malnutrition is rife and famine is a fast-approaching fear.
Israel has been the subject of enormous international scrutiny as the enormous death toll of civilians in Gaza continues to grow bigger.
But amid international cries for peace, Israeli PM Netanyahu has vowed not to stop until Hamas is destroyed.
Israel’s military pursuit in Gaza has also crossed the borders of Lebanon, with the IDF now conducting a targeted military invasion against Hezbollah – Iran’s top terror proxy group.
Iran, Israel’s archenemy has suffered major blows with the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and has targeted Israel with direct missile strikes twice – with the latest hit taking place just last week.
The world now awaits Israel’s response to Iran’s strike, and how Iran reacts to it as an all-out Middle East, which could potentially drag the West into it, could be on the brink.