Israel at war: Dance party in the Negev Desert becomes scene of horror at the hands of Hamas gunmen

The slaughter of more than 260 partygoers in southern Israel deepens horror at the weekend terror strikes and reinforces the case for war with Hamas.

The remains of a festival site where rescuers have found 260 bodies at a music festival in Israel after witnesses say Hamas terrorists cut the power and opened fire.

They’d danced the night away in the Negev desert when death-dealing Hamas rockets arrived with the dawn, visiting horror on 3000 young revellers.

Someone yelled “Run” and they did. They ran for their lives as carefully laid trap was sprung, turning the dusty site of the SuperNova rave into a killing ground for waiting Palestinian gunmen.

At least 260 party-goers died in the carnage. Most were Israeli, of course, but the festival had attracted people from far and wide. German tattoo artist Shani Louk, 30, was identified when her corpse was paraded through the streets of Gaza City and distraught relatives recognised her distinctive body art from an online video.

Some survivors were taken captive, among the 100-plus hostages now believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza.

Others found a way through the security fence to reach their cars, only to be caught in a lethal ambush on the road out.

Dozens died when their vehicles were raked by gunfire.

The indiscriminate savagery of Saturday’s attack – a reported 20 bodies were found in a shattered building where grenades were let off, slaughtering most of those who had sought refuge – horrified Israelis as the known death-toll from the weekend terror raids topped 700 in the Jewish state and 400 in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

More than 50 gunmen surrounded the remote festival site on Kibbutz Re’im, close to the fortified border in southern Israel. The murderous operation was planned and executed with military precision, deepening anger in Israel at how young ravers were targeted.

If any section of Israeli society was on the Palestinians’ side, it would have been the live-and-let-live crowd that flocked to SuperNova.

Survivor Daniel Moritz told the ABC on Monday, while firefights continued between Israeli soldiers and holdout militants, that the attack began about 6.30am when explosive rockets slammed into the site, causing mayhem.

He and his friends didn’t hesitate: they left their gear in the tents and ran for a side gate where their car was parked.

“The machine guns start firing at us with full force,” he said. “There were dozens of bullets, some so close we heard the ­whistles overhead.”

By now, utility vehicles packed with gunmen were crisscrossing the site, blazing away at fleeing party-goers. A small contingent of armed Israeli police and security personnel on hand for the weekend-long festivities was soon overwhelmed.

Israeli media said help from the military did not arrive for five hours, giving the killers free rein. “They were going tree by tree and shooting. I saw people dying all around,” Gili Yoskovich told the BBC.

She had sought cover in a citrus orchard. “I was very quiet. I didn’t cry, I didn’t do anything.”

The gunmen didn’t relent even when people reached their cars. They had blocked the main road with seven utility trucks and motor­bikes used in their breakout from Gaza.

The bloodshed was terrible. “Hundreds … of people were getting hit, injured and killed,” Mr Moritz said. They managed to turn their car around - straight into the sights of a shooter to their right.

“Somehow, we didn’t get hit,” he said.

“We managed to get away … the adrenalin runs through our blood like crazy, you know … until we got to safety we didn’t actually manage to think about what happened to us or just how lucky we were to get out of this situation.”

Another survivor, Michael Atios, said the Hamas fighters had planned all along to funnel people into kill boxes. “We … later realised the gunmen were targeting those who were trying to flee the party – they were waiting for them,” he told The Times of London.

Some were spared and taken hostage, including 25-year-old Nao Argamani whose heartrending plea of “Don’t kill me” to her captors went viral after being caught on video. Her boyfriend, Avi Nathan, is also missing.

Ms Argamani’s university roommate, Amir Moadi, last heard from her late on Saturday morning local time when she texted to say the couple was together and in hiding. “Her parents are in shock and can’t even speak,” Ms Moadi said. “She’s an only child.”

Mr Nathan’s brother, Moshe, said bitterly: “My brother just wanted to party with his girlfriend and look what happened.”

Reporters at the massacre site on Monday described an “apocalyptic” scene, cleared of the dead but still littered with live Russian-made grenades and ordnance discarded by the Hamas killers.

They had stormed in armed to the teeth. Lying next to a bag of dates in the tray of one of the white utes displaying Gaza number plates was an arsenal of unused weapons: rocket-propelled grenade launchers, claymore anti-personnel mines, body armour kits with hand grenades attached.

Relatives of the dead and missing vented their anger at the time it took the army to deploy, long after most of the killing had stopped, too late to rescue hostages.

A man identifying himself as Nissim told Israel’s Channel 12 he had received a despairing message from a brother at the rave.

“Help us,” the man had said. “They shot us. I am bleeding.”

Distressed relatives descended on a missing person’s centre near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport at the weekend where they were asked to hand over the toothbrushes and hairbrushes of their loved ones to help enable DNA tracing.