Near Kibbutz Re’im, Israel — In the scrubland of southern Israel is strewn the aftermath of a dance party that became a bloody massacre.
Thousands of people were gathered for the Supernova trance music festival, around three miles from the border with the Gaza Strip, when in the early morning hours of Oct. 7, after a night of dancing in the Negev Desert near the Kibbutz Re’im, Hamas gunmen arrived with murder on their minds.
As partygoers ran for their lives, they were cut down. Israeli officials said at least 260 people were killed in the massacre, and others were taken captive to be held as hostages.
Young people who had come for celebration were slaughtered. Several days on, mattresses, tents and blankets still remain, along with clothing, food and even toiletries.
Members of the Israel Defense Forces search for identification and personal effects at the Supernova Music Festival site in southern Israel, where hundreds were killed and dozens taken hostage by Hamas militants near the border with Gaza. Oct. 12, 2023.
LEON NEAL / Getty Images
CBS News spoke to some men who had returned to collect their belongings Thursday. It was hell, they said.
“It’s too much to talk about, it’s too much,” one of them said as they quickly drove away.
A motorbike belonging to one of the militants also remains, along with the stench of death. The Israeli military also intentionally left the dead body of a militant at the scene of the massacre.
Israeli Defense Forces soldiers remain at the festival site to guard the area in the event of another attack, and to clean up the carnage.
While CBS News was at the scene, several shots rang out and CBS News crews were told to take cover. Following several minutes of confusion, soldiers surrounded a man and took him into custody for questioning.
“There was a person who was arrested,” Lt. Masha Michelson, an IDF spokesperson, told CBS News. “He had a knife, everything’s under control, that’s why we have forces here securing us.”
There are fears that militants could still be hiding inside Israel.
“There’s a high alert there for a reason; 260 people were butchered here less than a week ago,” Michelson said. “And that’s why the forces are here, to make sure that it’s safe to come back here.”
The death toll from the Hamas assault on Israel has crossed the 1,200 mark, with at least 2,800 more wounded.
Israel’s retaliatory strikes have left at least 1,537 people dead in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
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