Moment terrified Nova Festival survivor filmed farewell message to her son as she hid in a FRIDGE while Hamas massacred people around her: Mother heard terrorists approach... then a miracle happened

A survivor of the Nova Festival massacre revealed she hid in a fridge to avoid being slaughtered by Hamas during their incursion into Israel last October.

Elinor Gambarian, 24, filmed herself saying goodbye to her eight-year-old son, Oshri, in a heartbreaking video as gunmen swept through the festival site.

Elinor, a single mother, would spend hours hiding as the people around her were gunned down and cars were torched - but could only think of her little boy.

Im hiding here inside a fridge, she said in a short recording to her son, aired in a new documentary. I am going to die today.

Hours later, she emerged to find bodies soaked in blood on the ground - and Hamas gunmen approaching as they shot another survivor pleading for his life.

She lay motionless as they drew near, expecting these would be her final moment - until someone called out in Arabic and, as if by miracle, they walked away. 

Elinor could only think of her eight-year-old son as she faced the possibility of death

She thought quickly to hide as Hamas gunmen stormed through the Nova site on October 7

Hamas filmed themselves stalking festivalgoers with Kalashnikov-style rifles on October 7 

Huge traffic jams stopped people from escaping as Hamas pursued with assault rifles

Charred and damaged cars along a desert road after an attack by Hamas militants at the Tribe of Nova Trance music festival near Kibbutz Reim in southern Israel on Saturday, October 7

Hamas led the charge of six armed Palestinian groups to sweep from Gaza into southern Israel on October 7, unleashing hell on people near the border.

Elinor was among the 3,000 people who had spent the night dancing at a peace festival before rockets came crashing down around 6:30 in the morning.

A huge bottleneck of traffic stopped her and hundreds of others from escaping the site, with many forced to flee on flee on foot as gunmen gave chase.

Distressed calls of Run! Run! Run! can be heard over mobile footage from the scene.

When Elinor realised terrorists were storming the area, she fled her car and ran back to the arena.

Taking shelter behind a bar with scores of other festivalgoers as Hamas fighters approached, she urged the people around her to hide in the fridges. 

There was only space for one person, and a man she was with said Youre the smartest one of us, you should get in.

I thought of Oshri and I climbed in the fridge, she said, appearing on the harrowing We Will Dance Again documentary chronicling the event as the conflict in Gaza approaches its first anniversary.

As rockets flew overhead and men with Kalashnikovs marched through the campsite, firing indiscriminately at civilians, Elinors quick-thinking action likely saved her life. 

Elinor passed out from lack of oxygen after recording a message for her eight-year-old son, telling him she expected to die. 

When she came out for air, she looked down and saw a blood-soaked body, she recalled.

She could hear Hamas lifting the lid of a nearby fridge and finding someone. They begged for their life, saying why?, before they were shot dead.

Elinor was lucky not to be among the 400 people who were killed or violently abducted from the festival last year.

She stayed motionless as the terrorists closed in, fearing that she would be next.

They approached her fridge, shouted in Arabic - and then moved away. 

Hours later, she heard people calling out for survivors in Hebrew. 

She feared it was Hamas fighters trying to coax her out, but was losing oxygen again and chose her moment. 

IDF soldiers had arrived to rescue her.

Elinor was led out through the piles of bodies, and remains traumatised a year on.

Many survivors have documented anxiety and stress disorders from their experiences at the festival.

One, speaking on the new documentary, reflected he was never going to be the person he was before October 7. 

Those responsible for identifying the bodies reported that victims showed signs of sexual abuse and rape, or had been mutilated before they were killed. 

A harrowing report published in February documented sadistic crimes alleged to have occurred at the festival, in surrounding villages, on IDF bases and in captivity.

Elinor was among the 3,000 people who had spent the night dancing at a peace festival before rockets came crashing down

Israeli soldiers surround a Palestinian who ran at them with a knife at the site of a music festival near the border with the Gaza Strip Thursday, October 12, 2023

Destroyed cars and belongings left at the Supernova Music Festival site where hundreds were killed and dozens taken by Hamas militants near the border with Gaza, on October 12, 2023 

Destroyed cars are seen at the party site near the Kibbutz Reim on Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Fleeing for their lives, people had no time to react when told the abandon their cars and run. Pictured: car keys are left in the ignition of a destroyed car at the festival on October 12

An Israeli officer walks around a campsite at the festival near Reim kibbutz on October 17

Testimonies heard by the Association of Rape Crisis Centres included claims Hamas gunmen repeatedly stabbed an injured woman while they raped her; that victims had nails, grenades and knives inserted into their sexual organs; and how survivors fleeing the festival witnessed girls whose pelvises were simply broken from being raped so much. 

Young men and women fleeing the Nova festival were hunted and dragged by their hair, screaming, according to witness testimonies. In most cases, they were killed after or during their rape. 

One survivor of the Nova festival said the aftermath was an apocalypse of bodies, girls without clothes, some missing their upper, some their lower parts. 

The report concluded Hamas insurgents operated systematically to target both women and men in villages and kibbutzim during the assault, executing victims during or after instigating sexual abuse.

We Will Dance Again premiered on Paramount+ on September 24.