Israeli emergency services have recovered at least 260 lifeless bodies from the desert near the Gaza Strip where hundreds of young people were celebrating a electronic music festival early Saturday morning, when Hamas burst in firing.

A spokesperson for ZAKA, a volunteer group that works to recover human remains after attacks and other disasters, has confirmed to Israeli media that so far more than 260 bodies have been collected from the place where the music festival was held in southern Israel, near Kibbutz Reim, near Gaza.

The hundreds of attendees at the Nova Music Festival witnessed rockets launched early Saturday by Palestinian militias from Gaza. Subsequently, armed militiamen arrived at the scene, which caused the mass escape of the participants while the music was still playing electronics.

The festival had been organized to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. It began at 11:00 p.m. on Friday and lasted all night with thousands of attendees, mostly Israelis between 20 and 40 years old. Videos have been spread on social networks showing the terrorists approaching by paraglider and the attendees fleeing in terror, while some were caught up.

Among the missing there would be a British citizen who worked in security of the festival, according to the Israeli embassy in the United Kingdom. The young man, 26, was working at the rave when, according to her mother’s testimony to ‘Jewish News’, she called her to tell her that there were rockets flying over the place. Later, she sent him a message after which he has not heard from her again.

Testimonies of survivors

Among those attending the festival was Arik Nani, who had attended the party to celebrate his 26th birthday. “I heard shots from all directions“They were shooting at us from both sides,” he said, speaking to Reuters: “Everyone was running and didn’t know what to do. “It was complete chaos.”

Zohar Maariv, 23, told the aforementioned agency that in the midst of the confusion he got into the car of some strangers and they started driving. When they started shooting at the vehicle, They fled on foot and hid for hours. Her boyfriend, Matan, who worked at the festival, was still missing.

Noa Argamani and her boyfriend Avinatan Or were also at the party, but They fell into the hands of Hamas men: Both have been identified among the dozens of Israelis who could be captive in Gaza, after circulating a video – which you can see below – in which you can see how the militiamen take the young woman on a motorcycle, while they push her couple on foot