Natalie Sanandaji of Long Island describes escaping Israeli dance festival during Hamas attack: "We heard the first gunshots"
LONG ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Long Island woman is home after surviving the catastrophic Hamas attack on a dance festival in Israel that killed at least 260 people.
Photos from before the horror show 28-year-old Natalie Sanandaji of Great Neck visiting Israel for a wedding, then onto a desert celebration of peace, love and dance music.
At dawn, rockets from Gaza began thundering overhead.
"If this festival happened anywhere else in the world, as soon as they saw those first rockets, they would have ran for their lives. But for these kids, that's a reality," said Sanandaji.
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Soon came the order from festival security: "Everybody pick up your things and go to your cars," she said.
First they were sent out one way, then told to turn around. Next, they were told to abandon their cars and run.
"We can't understand. We're thinking the fastest way to get out of here is by car, why would you tell us to go on foot? And then that's when we heard the first gunshots," said Sanandaji.
They were coming from all directions.
"Hearing the gunfire, you can't even tell what direction it's coming from," she said. "Thinking that you're running to safety, and then you see dozens of young kids running in your direction and realize that they're running from terrorists."
There was no right way to go. They were surrounded.
"They were kids running in every direction, trying to hide behind trees and ditches. But most of them ended up dying," said Sanandaji.
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After running for four hours, an Israeli local came to her rescue.
"[He] left the safety of his own town and came towards all of this to save innocent lives. He picked us up in his pickup truck, he drove us to his town to safety, and as soon as he dropped us off he went straight back to pick up more kids," said Sanandaji.
Along with the heroism, there was new evidence of horror. The Israel Defense Forces released video of Hamas shooting into the festival bathrooms Sanandaji was in moments earlier.
"They're just shooting. They're just trying to kill as many people as possible," said said. "Just no humanity at all."
Back home on Long Island, Sanandaji said she doesn't understand any attempt to rationalize slaughter.
"It was unarmed kids. It was kids trying to come together to dance, to be happy, to enjoy life. And it ended in their death. It's just hard to believe that anyone can do this, that any other human can do this to another human," she said.
