Noam Cohen took to YouTube to discuss his survival story during the Hamas terror attack at the Nova music festival.
Caution: Some viewers may find the following recount of events to be disturbing and/or distressing.
Noam Cohen took to YouTube to recount his survival story during the horrifying Hamas terror attack at the Nova music festival earlier this month.
Below is a recount of Cohen’s terrifying experience as one of the survivors of the Nova Music Festival terrorist attack.
Noam Cohen
Cohen is 19, from the center of Israel. He claims that he went to the Nova Music Festival – which took place in the Negev desert in southern Israel- to be a videographer. He is a filmmaker and he claimed that he had just gotten back from an 8-month travel trip to South America. He and his friends got to the festival around 3-4 AM, and they were waiting for the sun to rise. They enjoyed the festival for approximately 2 hours before they saw “rockets in the sky.” They didn’t take it seriously at first because they thought they were safe. Then, the music stopped shortly after and everyone was going home.
Noam Cohen Video
According to Cohen, he and his friends got in the car and he started driving home. Where the festival was, there was only one road in or out- everywhere he described was like an open field. After driving 5-10 minutes down the road, they heard shooting. They didn’t realize what it was at first, and his friend pointed out people in the bushes that began shooting at them. All of a sudden, Cohen’s car got shot at and one of his friends reportedly got hit in his leg through the car. Cohen was driving so he did a 180-degree turn and started driving back towards the festival because he thought there would be armed people there to help them.
However, on the way back they were blocked both ways. They then saw a shelter to get into in case of emergencies that the government put in. This shelter also had one way in, and one way out. It took Cohen and his friends 2-3 minutes to get there and they saw an armed guard nearby telling everyone around to get into the shelter. Cohen and his friends got into the shelter and they heard the whisking of the shooting all around them. Within minutes, Cohen recounts that they were hit on the shelter with an RPG, as he described. After this, everyone panicked and the shelter started to collapse. They then heard a “warzone” of shooting around them.
Not everyone was able to get inside the shelter but Cohen recounted feeling “lucky” enough to have gotten inside first- away from the entry. Everyone at the entrance who couldn’t fit in got shot and killed by Hamas terrorists. These terrorists then started then throwing grenades inside the shelter to try and get everyone out. The grenades exploded upon impact and Cohen saw blood all over the walls. People tried to get out but those who tried to get out continued to be shot at. Cohen said the terrorists threw 4 grenades, thinking that they killed everyone inside the shelter. Cohen believes only approximately 5-6 people survived even though he thought about 30 people were in the shelter. Cohen described covering himself with dead bodies to survive. Cohen said the terrorists also came inside the shelter to shoot people who weren’t killed by the grenades, in which Cohen described his legs being hit during this. Right now, Cohen can’t really walk because of this.
Cohen described the scene as a horror movie. A lot of Cohen’s friends died at this festival. As he tried to escape, Cohen then ran out of the shelter and drove into a small town where someone helped him- giving him pills for his pain. Even there, Cohen said the terrorists tried to attack. However, Cohen said there were armed people inside this town who were able to defend them.
Published by HOLR Magazine.