Gay Israeli man’s friends killed during music festival massacre
A man whose boyfriend is an officer in the Israel Defense Forces said Hamas militants killed several of his friends who were attending a music festival in southern Israel on Saturday. “I don’t know just one … I can’t even count right now,” Shmuel Hugi told the Washington Blade on Tuesday during a WhatsApp interview from his home in Tel Aviv.
Hugi, 29, spoke with the Blade three days after Hamas, which the U.S. and Israel have designated a terrorist organization, launched a surprise attack against communities in southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.
He said upwards of 3,000 people were at the all-night Tribe of Nova music festival that was taking place near Re’im, a kibbutz that is three miles from the border between Israel and Gaza, when the attack began on Saturday at around 6:30 a.m.
local time (11 p.m. ET on Friday.) Israeli officials say Hamas militants killed at least 260 people at the festival. They kidnapped what the Associated Press has reported as “a still undetermined number” of others and brought them back to Gaza.
