A British citizen is among dozens of festival attendees who are missing, kidnapped or presumed dead

The Israeli rescue service Zaka says its paramedics removed more than 260 bodies from a music festival that came under attack by Hamas militants.

The total figure of bodies found is expected to be higher, as other paramedic teams were also working in the area and Zaka added that the bodies “haven’t all been collected yet”.

Early on Saturday morning, Hamas targeted Nova music festival, a techno rave in the desert near the border with Gaza.

Videos shared on social media and by Israeli news outlets showed dozens of festival-goers running through an open field as gunshots rang out. Many hid in nearby fruit orchards or were gunned down as they fled.

  • @[email protected]English
    14•9 months ago

    Both Netanyahu and Hamas are probably riding a nice high right now. Both of their political positions improve the more people die on both sides.

    • BraveSirZaphod
      6•9 months ago

      There may be a real rally around the flag effect, but there’s a lot of anger at Netanyahu on the massive military and intelligence failures that made this possible. He may be able to stick around for this conflict, but he’s probably toast afterwards.

      Likud’s entire thing has always been that they’re the ones that can be trusted to keep Israelis safe. That view is now completely shattered.

      • @[email protected]English
        3•9 months ago

        Perhaps there’s a glimmer of hope then. If a less conservative and radical party takes control, maybe we’ll see an independent Palestinian state that’s allied with Israel and jointly fights Hamas.

        Unfortunately that’s very unrealistic :/. We’ll probably see an even more radical conservative group take power, and make us think Netanyahu was a saint in comparison. :/

        • BraveSirZaphod
          1•9 months ago

          That assumes that there is a sizable portion of Palestinians that want to fight Hamas, and there’s sadly no guarantee of that.

          • @[email protected]English
            1•9 months ago

            I know, but I’d like to be optimistic. I’d like to think that becoming an independent state in exchange for helping hunt Hamas would be more than agreeable to them.

            It saves me from the moral quandary – what if you’re right? What if the people generally support the group :/? I would need evidence to believe it, but I don’t know then. It’s pretty difficult to be neutral about them and not have a thought either way.

            • BraveSirZaphod
              0•9 months ago

              The biggest hurdle with that is that it’s essentially been tried. The IDF had occupied Gaza just like it currently does the West Bank until 2005, when they withdrew as a token of goodwill towards peace.

              Gazans immediately elected Hamas and started launching rockets at Israel. Israel is not going to repeat that.