The beginning of Mazal Tazu's story is similar to what thousands of attendees of the Nova party experienced in Reim on October 7. Alarms and missile fire pierce the sound of music coming from the speakers around 6:30 a.m. "I ran with my two friends to the parking lot without thinking twice," she recounts the sequence of events that from minute to minute become unimaginable. "We saw the long traffic jam and potholes and had to abandon the car."
Only a few hundred meters from the party grounds, the three hid in the bushes, hoping that their hiding place would rescue them from the inferno. "We lay down on the floor, not moving for a moment, with incessant gunfire and people screaming in the background."
Mazal Move, Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon
Before long, Tazu faced death face to face. In a situation that looks like it was taken from a horror movie, a young Israeli woman faces a squad of armed Hamas murderers. "They were shouting 'get up' to us in English, when suddenly one of them knocked the butt of my weapon in the head and I collapsed on the floor," she said in a trembling voice. Tazu's consciousness was clouded, she was in pain, unaware at the same time that her two friends, Daniel Cohen and Yohai Ben Zakaria, had been shot dead at point-blank range.
Move a moment after being evacuated to the hospital, photo: None
Hamas terrorists were not satisfied with the murder of her two friends, and decided to tie her legs with ropes in an attempt to kidnap her into the Gaza Strip. "The terrorist pressed his face against me, and without batting an eyelid I continued to pretend to be dead," she continues to describe the events in a trembling voice, occasionally stuck with excitement. "The terrorists just walked away and I felt the ropes coming loose from my legs. A few seconds later I lost consciousness."
Last photo: Mazal and Daniel z"l at a party in Nova, photo: None
Lucky next to the photo of Yochai Ben Zakaria z"l who was murdered at a party, photo: None
With the shooting going on for hours and the terrorists setting fire to the vegetation in the area, she suddenly noticed a young Israeli woman trying to text the rescue forces to arrive. "The fire was already approaching us and we had to act." The two decided to flee for their lives and found a vehicle parked on the road. "I felt like I didn't have the strength anymore. We waited for hours for them to come and rescue us, during which time the terrorists approached and moved away from the vehicle." With the remainder of her strength, Zizou was pulled out of the vehicle by one of the partygoers who spotted her. "He took me and from there we connected with IDF forces who evacuated us to Soroka."
One of the reasons that persuaded Tzu to give an interview and share the story two months after the disaster was her desire to commemorate the friends she lost next to bad guys. "It's important to me that they know who Daniel and Yohai were," she says sadly. "They were at the most critical moments of my life. I will never forget them."
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