So my name is maya parizer I am 27 years old I was born in Israel but also Im American citizen and I lived with my family in California when I was younger. Im just recently graduated from Ben Gurion University when I studied computer science in Be’er Sheva. Nearly engaged and just moved with my fiance to Ramat Gan we have two small dogs.

We actually planned so many things for October,

it was supposed to be one of the best months its my birthday month as well, but we went to this Nova festival and everything has changed since

So the trance community im kind of new. like, Ive joined because my fiance ron he really likes this music. I’ve always been a party girl ive arranged parties as a student you need sometimes to take a time off,and I was a publicist and arranged some parties myself.

And What I love about electronic music is the fact that you can just be yourself. No one is really looking at you. It’s not like mainstream music where you’re expected to behave in a certain way or dance in a certain way. Like In electronic music, you can be yourself. If You want, you don’t even have to dance. You can just hang around. It’s like a festival. It’s for a long time. It’s really something that I’ve grown to like

I think nova festival is my 3rd party and I was really looking forward into it.

So Friday was you know the Jewish people we have celebretion the holiday called sukkot and that was the second weekend of sukot so we went actually to my fiance’s brother they live in kfar saba with our small kid and we had an amazing dinner and then we even took a small nap and we left the house around one oclock in the night. The party starts at twelve it is supposed to finish after 16-17 hours of Saturday. So we took our time you know the last nova party we attended was on Independence Day and we in fact only arrived around sunrise so this time I wanted to arrive early because of all the amazing djs and all you know we had so much plans for this night so we decided to leave even earlier so I thing we arrived on 2:30 or 03:00 in the morning and you bring all this stuff with you like tens tables chairs all this things it takes a while to even set it up

and we weren’t that stressed out because we were earlier so we took our time drinking and you know pre-game im sure you every one who is watching can relate and we like to drink and chill before we are going to dance so we didnt even know every minute counts because in 3 hours or so like the party is gonna be interrupted not because of technicalities just because

We need to run for our lives. So we were just taking our time when we arrived there. The sunrise is usually the best time because the sun is changes now the light is up and you can see everyone and its really a special time everyone really looking into it I think we only got maybe 10-15 minutes of dancing in the sun before it all started.

It started just with rockets and missiles in the sky.

So we were very lucky that our car was parked close to the main road. So within seconds I think it was around seven oh five, seven oh ten, when we hit the road, we were just able to choose to take a right turn or take a left turn. We take a left turn….

We didn’t really know. We were kind of drunk. We were just dancing and we were like: okay, so let’s escape this as fast as possible. Let’s just take a left turn.

The road itself was chaotic. You can see in my camera, in my dash camera of the car, that a lot of cars you’re turning suddenly see someone dead on the street. And that was my first time that I actually saw someone dead in front of me. He was dying. Like his foot was up and then down. He was suffering from many injuries and like, oh, he’s just maybe injured because of all the chaos in the street. And maybe five or six seconds later, we started hearing gunshots ourselves.

We didn’t really think thought that they’re chasing us or that they’re aiming us. We felt as if it was in the back, like coming to get us. So, you know, we pushed the gas. We didn’t really comprehend it at the time. I think most of us didn’t because it was, it was maybe seven twenty or something like No one knew at the time that two thousand terrorists have entered the state of Israel. Road is so dangerous.It’s filled with terrorists. I’m not even sure how you got here. And I think at that point, we really understood that something really bad is happening because even like, and

I think that was the point when I really realized something like there’s a chance I’m not going to make it out alive.

And this is something, you know, I’ve never, I’ve never been this close to dying. And I didn’t really know what to do. So we’re just running inside kibbutz Sa’ad, just standing surrounded by all the houses. Not even knowing, should we knock? Should we stay? And throughout this time, you hear the red alerts

And I didn’t really know what to do

I just said to myself, like, I have to say goodbye to my parents

something bad is going to happen to me. So I’m trying to call my mom.

It doesn’t even matter if I’m staying in this shelter, like, no place in this area is really considered safe. It’s just a matter of luck. It’s just a matter of being in the right place in the right time. I love you. I’m really scared.

(Question)

(Answer) I don’t know. Because in Israel, always, you know, someone knows someone and then it’s just, you just hear all the helicopters, you hear machine guns, the house is shaking from either iron drone or from the faults of the missiles. And all the kibbutzes around us saying like, I need help. I’m injured. No one’s helping me. And it’s like, literally went to a party when now you’re trying to survive for your life. And it’s just something you really can’t believe. Like, this is something it’s like even in movies, it doesn’t get this brutal. It doesn’t get this,

I just went to have fun in a party. And next thing I know, I’m just running for my life. And I lost family members. I lost friends who went with me to the party. I have people that I know that are in Gaza right now. And the world is just okay with it because I don’t know what’s wrong with the world, actually. As soon as we arrived to the house, we realized like, we’re here in this shelter, but where are my friends? Here, I’m okay. Where are you guys? And a lot of my friends didn’t reply because he saw their videos where they were so happy to share that they are kidnapping people, like, it’s the year of the rat. I didn’t have the guts to go on the Telegram channels of Gaza, but my fiancé Ron did. And he recognized that we know some people that were taken to Gaza. They didn’t survive. They died in that shelter

alongside with many others. There were fifteen people, actually twenty-nine, but soon there were fifteen. We don’t know what happened to the fourteen first, and then a lot of the people that were in the shelter had to die from their injuries, from the grenades, or from their shootings. And it pains me to see that people think that this is AI, that people say that this is fake. Some people came to me and asked me, like, is this real? And then when I started telling them my story and showing them my videos, they really understood. And they were really surprised to see that it’s not AI, that it’s not fake.

I just decided to fly because I’m an American citizen.

I was asked to fly because congressmen and senators needed first survivors to tell their stories, to understand that these are not just pictures and stories, that this is something that happened to U.S. citizens as well as to just innocent civilians.

When I was there, I saw a lot of kidnapped signs ripped off, and it really pained us. So we decided to print and to repost them wherever we saw ripped signs. And while we were doing that, you know, I had to show them, I still have my bracelet from the party, a bracelet that I decided I’m never taking off until all hostages are returned. How many seconds did it take when everyone thought Israel bombed a hospital? And you know, within seconds, people, you know, assumed Israel killed five hundred dozen civilians.

And within feels like anti-Semitism, to be honest. When people really protest against something but not for something, it can really show. This is the bracelet of the party, and me and my fiancé Ron decided we’re not taking it off until all hostages are back.