LI Woman Survived Hamas Attack On Music Festival By Constantly Moving

GREAT NECK, NY — A Long Island woman is sharing the harrowing memories of surviving the Hamas terrorist attack at the Nova Music Festival last month, where 364 were killed in the massacre.

Natalie Sanandaji went to the festival with three Israeli friends and met with a larger group of 15 to 20 more people.

"We were sleeping when the first rockets were sent our way," Sanandaji told Patch.

When a friend woke them about the incoming ballistics on the morning of Oct. 7, there wasn't any urgency, a product of life in Israel. However, the rockets would not let up from Hamas in nearby Gaza. It was when the festival security told everyone to pack up and head to their cars that Sanandaji knew this was more serious.

Still, Sanandaji maintained an optimistic take as she evacuated, expecting Israel's anti-missile "Iron Dome" to effectively block the Hamas projectiles.

"Our biggest concern was maybe scraps of the intercepted rockets falling on our cars," she said.

Thousands of people left the festival simultaneously and, Sanandaji said, they had one dirt road to use, causing a traffic jam that would lead to devastating results.

Before they got in the vehicle for the expected long wait, she used the bathroom.

"At the time, I didn't realize how much of a mistake that could have been," she said. "About two weeks after, a video surfaced of the Hamas terrorists going to those exact bathrooms and shooting at every bathroom stall, trying to kill anyone inside, which was maybe 10-15 minutes after I was there."

Without any hindsight, Sanandaji, 28, and her three friends could only focus on the present and that meant getting as far away from the festival groups, as fast as possible.

Confusion ensued as security in golf carts started to instruct drivers in a different direction. "At that point, we got a little more nervous," she said.

Eventually, there would be panic as security yelled at drivers to pull over and "get out your cars and start running," Sanandaji recalled.

Sanandaji and her small group of friends still believed this was a cautious move for a rocket attack until they heard gunshots before getting out of the car.

"We realized this situation is way worse than we thought," she said. "We opened our doors and started running."

While they heard gunfire, Sanandaji said they never saw Hamas militants.

"From up close, if I did see any of them, I probably wouldn't be here today," she said.

In what has to be akin to having PTSD, Sanandaji treated the fluidity as an out-of-body experience, forced to make split-second, potential life-or-death decisions as the four friends spent four hours navigating the grounds and avoiding Hamas.

"One of the most terrifying things was running in a certain direction for a while; suddenly we see dozens of kids [who] left the festival grounds before us. They're running in our direction. Then you see that they're being pursued and they're being shot at," Sanandaji said. "You realize you're not running toward safety, you're running toward terrorists."

During the escape, Sanandaji and her friends could have hidden in a ditch with an acquaintance from their campsite.

"We started getting into the ditch and one of my friends said, 'This is a bad idea.'"

The concern was sitting in a ditch would make them easy targets for Hamas, and the four friends kept running.

"We later found out that the kids who hid in the ditch were shot and killed," Sanandaji said.

Sanandaji and her three friends stuck together the entire time and were not harmed. They, somehow, maintained a calmness as their minds were in survival mode.

"I didn't think that I was going to die," she said.

There was one moment, though, when Sanandaji felt fear creep in. About four hours into the women's mad dash, the group paused briefly under a tree.

"Suddenly, we see a white pick-up truck driving in our direction," she said.

The four friends and several others had chosen the spot for shade to catch their breath.

"Our automatic thought was, 'This is a terrorist coming to kill us.'" Sanandaji said they contemplated running. "Simultaneously, we all realized that we had nowhere to run to."

Making peace with whatever would happen next, Sanandaji said her group of friends sat under the tree and smiled at each other.

"We all accepted our fate," she said, as they waited for the truck to reach them. "That was the only time that I thought 'This is the end.'"

As fate would have it, it was a heroic trucker from a neighboring community who was driving shuttle runs to rescue victims from the festival.

"He went back and forth and saved, maybe, 10-15 groups of kids," Sanandaji said. "He dropped us off and turned right back around and went to save more kids."

As Sanandaji was trying to find her way out of the campgrounds, her mother called, wanting to make sure she was alright.

"We hadn't heard any gunshots for a few minutes, so it was a good time to answer her," she said. "Instead of saying goodbyes, like a lot of kids did with their parents, I decided to tell her I wasn't there."

Not to worry her mother, Sanandaji said it wasn't the party in the news, and she was safe.

"As I'm talking to her, they start shooting at us again and people started screaming," Sanandaji said before rushing off the phone, claiming to have a bad signal.

In detailing her ordeal as a survivor of the terrorist activity that started the war with Hamas, Sanandaji said she is still disassociated from events, "especially because I did leave Israel two days after it happened."

She hopes to return soon and do community service.

"The thing that weighs on me the most is the fact that I'm here and I made it, but there are so many people who are still being held hostage," she said.

A deal was imminent Tuesday to release 50 female and children hostages from Gaza, CNN reported.

"I'm trying to do as much as I can to help the situation by telling my story," Sanandaji said. "That's the most important thing I can do right now."