In a chilling revelation of survival and resilience, the massacre at the Supernova music festival that shook Israel found a voice through Israeli Maya Parizer.
“Sorry for crying. It's been 24 days but it just feels like this nightmare continues,” she said . “And looking at these videos, I was there. And for some miracle, I got to be here and tell their story.”
Speaking at the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center, organized by the Women's International Zionist Organization, Maya recounted the horrors of that fateful day.
The Supernova Music Festival, held in Israel on October 7th, was meant to be a celebration of love and peace.
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Parizer, 27, said she attended the event with her boyfriend and over a dozen friends.
However, the festivities turned into a nightmare when Hamas terrorists launched a violent attack, plunging the festival into chaos.
“We decided to come back to where our stuff was. Just maybe take a breath, get another drink. But it all started. It was around 6:30 a.m. and I just remember looking up there in the sky and seeing what felt like thousands of rockets and missiles,” she said.
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Tears welled up in Maya's eyes as she took the stage at the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center to share her harrowing experience.
She described the moment when violence erupted as they attempted to find safety.
At sunrise on that Saturday morning, Hamas gunmen launched hundreds of rockets and breached the border between Gaza and Israel, heading towards the festival grounds.
Maya says she and her fiancé managed to escape the festival grounds by car, but the violence soon spilled into the countryside, home to many kibbutzes.
“People lost their body parts, their hands, their feet. Suddenly they didn't have the strength to continue throwing grenades from the shelter,” she said.
As they tried to find their way to safety, she said a compassionate individual guided them and gave them a place to stay.
“We saw some Israeli civilian holding a gun, signaling us to stop. So we did. We were so confused. And he told us that he doesn't even understand how we are here, that he's been getting alerts of so many terrorists on his phone,” she said.
She said many of her attempts to reach out to family and friends were unsuccessful amid the chaos, and said some of her friends are being held hostage in Gaza.
Maya expressed her intention to return to Israel in the near future, but explained why she’s decided to share her story directly with audiences in the U.S.
“Not until all of [the hostages] are returned, and Hamas is completely destroyed,” she said.
