October 7 survivor reveals how childhood scar saved her from Hamas

A Nova survivor has revealed how she was forced to watch Hamas terrorists savagely murder a man right before her eyes – moments before a scar saved her from being raped and suffering the same fate.

May Hayat, 33, from Tel Aviv, is one of several survivors who have arrived in London ahead of a new immersive exhibition about the atrocities that took place at the Nova Festival in southern Israel, on October 7, 2023. 

Some 413 people were killed and 44 taken hostage to Gaza from the annual outdoor trance festival, as terrorists inflicted similar barbarities in nearby Kibbutzim, including Be’eri, Kfar Aza and Nir Oz.

A report published a week ago by The Civil Commission, an independent Israeli women’s rights NGO formed in the wake of October 7, 2023, detailed how several men and women were also sexually abused, raped and mutilated.

Visitors to the exhibition, which runs for six weeks in Shoreditch, can experience the full horror of Nova – where more than 3,000 music-loving young people had gathered together to dance through the night – as it unfolded.

Among a chaotic backdrop of footage recorded on mobile phones, terrorist body cams and CCTV, the exhibition reveals how the festival went from a scene of celebration to one filled with pure terror.

Burned out cars, toilet cubicles riddled with bullet holes and abandoned camping gear sit among the personal possessions, hairbrushes and half-eaten food items left behind by those who fled for their lives – and those that never returned.

Rows upon rows of discarded shoes, trainers and sandals meanwhile are poignantly reminiscent of a scene from Auschwitz inside a room filled with memorial candles and photographs of the young lives taken that day.

Nova survivor May Hayat, 33, from Tel Aviv, has revealed how a scar on her arm ultimately saved her life after she was taken by Hamas terrorists

May explained the terrorists did not want her to come to harm after noticing the scar on her right arm, which she has covered with a tattoo

Rows upon rows of discarded shoes, trainers and sandals on display at the exhibition are poignantly reminiscent of a scene from Auschwitz

Among the many exhibits is the main bar, half-empty bottles lying on their side next to a smashed cash register punched with bullets.

The bar is one of the more deeply evocative items on display for survivors like May, a bartender who worked alongside her best friend, Liron Barda, serving revellers through the night on October 6, 2023. 

She told Daily Mail: ‘It was the greatest festival I saw in Israel and I’ve been to many before. The people were so beautiful, the energy was perfect.’

Their shift was due to end at sunrise – but then, at 6.29am on October 7, 2023 – the music suddenly stopped.

‘We didn’t understand what was happening. Liron looked up to the sky and said, “look May, there are rockets above us.”

‘We are used to rockets in Israel unfortunately, but it was so shocking this was happening at a festival, we couldn’t believe it. 

‘I realised this was something different. In this moment I felt I was going to die – I even sent my family a goodbye message.

‘Then I got a phone call from my best friend, who had been at the festival with her husband. When the rockets started, they had run to their car to drive home. But while on the road she saw terrorists – and blood and dead bodies all over.’

Facing a dire situation, she and Liron ran through the site only to discover scores of people returning after being shot and wounded as they had tried to flee in their cars. 

Liron decided in that moment to help the paramedics, while May headed towards a police command post at the festival site. She placed herself under the table as up to 50 others joined her inside the small room. 

‘I felt that was it, I was waiting for my death,’ she recalled. ‘Four police officers then came in with their weapons. They were standing near us, looking out the window. One turned round and said, “It’s Saturday, it’s a Jewish holiday today, you need to pray as hard as you can and run for your life.”

In that moment, May said she blacked out.  

‘When I opened my eyes I found myself alone under the table, the door was open and there was complete silence. In my head I said, “May, do not die today, you need to run to save your life.”‘

As she stumbled outside, Liron was still helping the injured onto stretchers. She turned to look at her friend and intimated to May to run away. It would be the last time she would ever see her alive.

Footage found after the incident captured the selfless 26-year-old still helping partygoers right up until the final moment she was murdered by Hamas terrorists.

May meanwhile had begun to flee, bullets whistling past her as she tried to find a place of safety.

She came across an abandoned ambulance in the centre of an open field. As she got closer, she found people hiding in and underneath the vehicle.

‘I went inside, but something told me this was a death trap, I couldn’t stay here,’ she said. 

Her instincts sadly proved right. Had May stayed, she too would have been a victim of the ‘death ambulance’ as it came to be known, after terrorists targeted the vehicle with an anti-tank missile and grenades. 

All 18 young festivalgoers who had sought refuge and medical treatment were burned alive, their remains found in the days following the attacks. 

Burnt out vehicles riddled with bullet holes are among the items on display at the exhibition 

One room is filled with memorial candles and photographs of the young lives taken that day

But May had already made the decision to leave. Looking around, she saw a man waving at her from an open field.

‘I had felt helpless, but then we ran together before a car came along. I feared it was a terrorist, but it was someone from the festival. He told us to get in the car. 

‘When we finally reached the road, I saw many dead bodies, burnt bodies, burnt cars, smoke all over. I laid down on the floor of the car,  put my prayer book on my head and began to recite the Shema [Jewish prayer]. 

‘The terrorists began shooting at our car and I yelled at the driver that no matter what  not to stop. He turned the car around, but they didn’t stop shooting at us.’

Covered in bullets, the vehicle ground to a halt. May thought again that this was the end. 

‘I’m in an open field, I was tired and exhausted, I considered giving up. I sat on the ground waiting for my death. But when I looked back, I saw the guy I had run with before. He told me to get up and we ran again together.’

After some time, the pair came across a shallow pit in the ground.  

‘It reminded me of a Holocaust story I had heard where people had survived by pretending to be dead while lying in holes. I thought even if we need to be here for three days, that’s what we are going to do.

‘We got in, we held hands and we prayed. He told me his name was Avi Dadon, he was married with children. After 20 minutes we heard footsteps on the dry leaves.’

With dread, they realised a group of Hamas terrorists had found them.   

‘We heard someone standing above us whistling and laughing, then another and another, but we didn’t move.

‘They pulled me out first. When I stood and opened my eyes I found myself with eight terrorists in civilian clothes holding knives, hammers and wooden bats. One of them was a 14-year-old child in flip flops with knives in his hand. Their leader stood at the side with an explosive device and walkie talkie.

‘Then they pulled out Avi. He offered them money and told them he had children. He begged them. When I saw that I knew I had to be resilient, I have to be strong. I can’t show them fear, I’m not their victim.’

She encouraged Avi to stand up, but the 44-year-old father feared that death was close.

May then noticed ‘an energy and look in their eyes that every woman knows what’s going to happen next.’

Fearing she was about to be assaulted and raped, she said she ‘disconnected’ and prayed again that she would be saved.  

‘The first one started to touch my hand…then the main leaders said something to them and they all took a step back.’

She noticed they had left her alone after seeing a scar and tattoo on her right arm. The scar was the remnant of a burn she had received as a young baby; the tattoo an attempt to empower herself by covering up the scar, for which she was relentlessly bullied as a child.

It was only months later she was told that such scars have a spiritual significance in the eyes of the terrorists. 

‘According to their beliefs, a scar like this means a strong woman. If something happened to her because of them, the 72 virgins they are promised will not come looking for them in heaven.’

The leader walked over to her and gave her his jacket, before telling May and Avi they would now be taken as hostages to Gaza. They were forced to walk for more than two hours, before coming across two dead bodies on the ground. 

‘They made us sit on our knees, on the bodies, to check if they were really dead. Then they took their belongings and told us to stand up again.’

May obeyed, but Avi stayed on his knees, refusing to stand up. 

She was forced to watch as three of the group forced Avi up, before pushing his head back and brutally stabbing him several times in the neck. 

‘They killed him there, Avi my angel,’ she said.

The terrorists forced May to get in an abandoned car they came across, but once again she was saved after the engine failed to start. 

‘All the way, I was asking questions. I felt like I wasn’t really here, but I showed them no fear.’

The terrorists decided they would walk back to Nova, where they tried to open the cash registers at the main bar. May helped them take the money, before one of the terrorists placed the same knife that had killed Avi against her cheek.

‘He said, “If you run, I’ll kill you”.

But the leader shook his head at his fellow terrorist before telling May she was free to go. The scar again had saved her life.

Hardly believing his words, May began to run and headed towards the small stage. 

She crawled into the space underneath, where she laid herself next to the bodies of two dead men. 

‘The terrorists began shooting everywhere. I took the blood from one of the bodies and put it on my face. I lay there for two-and-a-half hours before the army came and rescued me.’

More than two years on, May is still coming to terms with the trauma of what she endured, as well as losing one of her closest friends.

‘Liron my best friend was murdered, she refused to abandon the injured. She was a hero. Her motto was you only live once and since then I believe that’s her legacy. 

‘I want to ask people to live their life, to spread light, to be good people and to cherish every moment – because you never know what could happen tomorrow. Every breath should count.’

She added: ‘Since Nova, I’m a whole different person. There is a reason I didn’t die. I feel now I have found my purpose in sharing my story with others.’

But perhaps one of the most profound impacts from October 7 has been how May feels about her scar. 

‘It was the thing I hated the most about myself,’ she confessed. ‘Children would laugh at me and tease me when I was a kid. I was scalded as a baby with boiling water.

‘Now I realise everything is for your better good, even after 30 years. 

‘All my life I wanted a tattoo on my scar to make it disappear, but three weeks before Nova I decided to decorate it, because it’s a part of me.’

Taking off her jacket, May proudly shows off the flower tattoo surrounding her scar.

‘Thanks to this scar they didn’t rape me. When they saw I was strong and didn’t cry, they didn’t kidnap me. I used to despise this scar, now I love it.’

06:29AM – The Moment Music Stood Still runs in Shoreditch, London, until July 5.