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Government officials were among the audience members at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, where Ben Artzi spoke on Tuesday, Oct. 17, of the horrors that she saw.
In a video posted by AIPAC, Ben Artzi said she heard what people thought were fireworks but later learned with missiles flying over Re'im. She first tried escaping in a car but ended up taking shelter in small cement enclosure.
At one point, she lost consciousness. Thirty people piled in, most of them on top of her.
"Everyone wanted to save their life," Ben Artzi said. "Next thing I know, they’re throwing five grenades inside. Body parts are flying around and all I hear around me is people suffocating. People on top of another and a lot of shots from within."
For three hours, Ben Artzi stayed like this, inhaling smoke from bodies being burned by Hamas at the entrance of the shelter, she said. Those who couldn't take it left, only to be shot and killed, the student said.
“I thought about my family,” she said, “and I had one question, and it was, ‘Why do I deserve to suffocate until I die?’”
The attack at the festival left 260 people dead. Approximately 1,300 others died at the hands of Hamas, according to the White House.
Click here to watch Noa Ben Artzi's complete speech.
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