“I had to choose between being burned alive or being shot.” On October 7th, 2023, Mazal Tazazo was attacked by Hama while trying to escape the Nova music festival with her friends. "We managed to reach Route 232, what we now call the highway to hell, and tried to evade them in every possible way, including getting out of the car and hiding behind bushes near the road. Unfortunately, we couldn't conceal ourselves," she recalls of that horrific day. "I was struck on the head with a rifle butt, and my friends were murdered," she continues. "The terrorists tied my legs and wanted to take me but I played dead and they gave up… then they set the area on fire, and I had to choose between burning to death or being shot. I decided to flee from the flames toward the road and sat in the car for two hours until, around 3 p.m., an angel—another Nova survivor—came and drove me and four other survivors to safety." "In those moments, you don't think about your actions; you operate on autopilot. At that time, I didn't even grasp the reality of what was happening. It felt like a hallucination, and all I could do was pray to God to end the madness. It felt like a movie, but unfortunately, it was a painful and brutal reality." "There are many people worldwide who deny these events happened, probably because the human mind can't comprehend that someone could commit such horrific atrocities," she adds. "But it did happen, and our goal is to bring this reality, with all its harshness, right to their faces."
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