Live testimony from Israel Defense Force veteran Rom El-Hai was heard at Northside Forsyth Hospital Wednesday evening, detailing his experience of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
29-year-old Rom El-Hai is from Netanya, where he works as an insurance salesman and personal trainer. His life took an unexpected turn on Oct. 7 while he was attending the Nova Music Festival and Hamas terrorists attacked.
El-Hai spoke to an eager crowd Wednesday night, detailing some of his experiences as a survivor of the massacre.
El-Hai has been attending music festivals around the world for the past decade, so when an opportunity to attend the Nova Music Festival opened up, El-Hai and his friends took it. They were volunteers at Nova, ensuring the concert attendees were safe and enjoying their time. Volunteering also got them into the festival for free.
“So we came to the festival area at something like 2 a.m. to get inside,” El-Hai said. “I've been in many festivals around the world, almost 10 years, and I was very, very impressed. It was way more beyond my expectation, it was huge, 40,000 people, so much color, the music was loud and everybody just danced.”
The mood of the concert started to shift quickly at around 6:30 a.m., according to El-Hai.
“Suddenly, I saw tons of rockets exploding in the sky,” El-Hair said. “Very, very close to us. So my friend was next to me and I told them, ‘Oh no, they're going to close the party.’ That was my only concern at that moment. Because it's very sad to say, it’s not something new, rockets from Gaza, we’re already used to it.”
El-Hai noted that oftentimes, the sunrise is one of the apex moments at music festivals, with venues putting their best DJs in that time slot. In the case of Nova, as the sun came up, the dance floor was completely vacated.
The police arrived and announced over the microphone system that the festival was over, encouraging everyone to gather their things and head home. El-Hai detailed that many people were confused and hesitant to leave, thinking it must be a joke.
Once El-Hai and his friends had their gear, they decided to get in their car and go find a lake to spend the rest of the day at together.
“I saw from my [car] window three police officers with their guns out going inside the forest,” El-Hai said. “And I asked myself, why? If there are explosions, rockets in the sky, what's three police officers with little guns going to do in the forest?”
At that point, a car reportedly crashed into the line of vehicles a few cars away from El-Hai. A woman got out and fell to the ground, covered in blood, and the people with the woman began shouting that she had been shot.
El-Hai and his friends wanted to help but knew they were not doctors, and there was already a crowd around the woman, so they seized the opportunity to start driving away from the festival.
“So we are on the road, and after a few meters again, we’re stuck in traffic and then a security guy just standing in the middle of the road stopped and screamed, ‘Everyone get out of the car and run.’” El-Hai said. “We got out of the car and went into the forest. Only with the things that we had in our pockets. And we tried to hide — from what we don't know.”
While hiding, El-Hai and his friends could hear hundreds of gunshots. Having previously served in the IDF, El-Hai and his friends were familiar with what AK-47s sound like as well as M-16s, which are the primary rifles used by IDF soldiers.
The only guns they were hearing were AK-47s, El-Hai said, which made him realize the IDF was not present, only Hamas terrorists, who were shooting, killing and celebrating, according to what El-Hair could see and hear.
From there, El-Hai and his two friends set up two rules for themselves: one was to never split up and the other was to always be moving east, no matter what. That direction would pull them away from the Gaza border.
The group began moving east, coming in contact with several other groups from the festival, which would usually break off again after a while. El-Hai describes that every idea they had seemed like a bad one, because if they stayed put, they would be found, and if they ran, they might be shot or kidnapped.
El-Hai noted that they would rather have been shot and killed than kidnapped by the Hamas terrorists.
Eventually, the group ran into some security guards.
“So one of the security guys was inside a car and I told them, ‘Here I am, you have a car, take me out now,’” El-Hai said. “He looked at me in the eyes and said, ‘No, I'm not taking you out, I’m taking out now just girls.’”
After being left behind by more security guards and police officers, El-Hai and his friends eventually stumbled upon a greenhouse filled with red peppers. They ate the peppers since they scarcely had any food, and nearly no water under the scorching hot Israel sun.
El-Hai and his group teamed up with several others and continued east. Eventually, they ran into more police officers, who ended up having the exact number of seats in their transport to take the group out of the area to safety.
El-Hai later found out that one of his friends who had been to hundreds of music festivals worldwide was among those who were killed by Hamas terrorists at Nova.
“My friend gave me a video and in the video, some young man in Gaza with terrorists, the terrorists just pulled him over with his hands on his head with a gun,” El-Hai said. “I watched the video on my phone, and I saw his bracelet from the festival and in the same picture [holding my phone], I saw mine. And I realized how easily I could be that guy. And I also said to myself, ‘Wow, maybe that guy danced with me just a few hours ago, now he’s kidnapped in Gaza, what a strange world.’ So at that point, I was sad, angry, humiliated.”
El-Hai has been traveling around different parts of the United States sharing his story in hopes it will remind communities to band together.
“We need to remember who is the enemy,” El-Hai said. “The enemy doesn’t have mercy. Not for young people, not for adult people … not for right, left, even not for a little girl in a handicap chair.”
