Daijiworld Media Network- Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv, Aug 6: In one of the most harrowing survivor accounts to emerge from the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, a 35-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli woman has shared how she survived a massacre by feigning death after her friends were brutally murdered in front of her.

Mazal Tazazo had gone to the Supernova music festival held in the Negev Desert near the Gaza border along with her two close friends, Daniel Cohen (25) and Yohai Ben Zecharia (23), to celebrate life. But the festive mood quickly turned into a nightmare as Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israeli territory, opening fire indiscriminately on festival-goers.

“There were sirens... then gunshots. The music stopped and security forces told us to leave,” Mazal recalled. Along with hundreds of others, the trio fled toward the main road, but their escape was cut short. The militants caught up with them and gunned down her friends. “I saw them killed right next to me,” she recounted, her voice still trembling.

She too was attacked—her head bashed with a gun—but survived by lying motionless, pretending to be dead. Left bloodied and bruised in a burning field, she remained there for nearly eight hours. “It was a miracle. I was full of blood. They thought I was dead,” she said, revealing visible scars on her head and hand.

Her terrifying ordeal didn’t end there. As she lay still, she felt someone trying to tie her legs. “They spoke in Arabic… one of them came close to check if I was alive. He assumed I was dead and left me there,” she said.

Eventually, she was rescued by fellow survivors and taken to the hospital. Though she remembers spotting a police officer during the chaos, she now fears he didn’t survive. “Most policemen there were killed. I often think about him. He didn’t know how to help me—he was helpless and frustrated.”

Asked what gave her the strength to speak up about the horror, she said, “My 11-year-old son. I want him to grow up in a safe world. But today, we don’t live in one.”

The Supernova festival attack was among the deadliest events of that day, with over 360 youths killed. In total, 1,195 people—including 736 civilians—were killed, while 251 hostages were taken into Gaza during the broader assault. The tragedy left scars not just on survivors like Mazal, but on an entire nation.