A survivor of the Nova music festival massacre has revealed how a scar she carried since childhood may have ultimately saved her life after Hamas terrorists nearly abducted her to Gaza during the October 7 attack.

Mai Chayat, 33, from Tel Aviv, shared her harrowing account while visiting London ahead of the opening of a new exhibition documenting the atrocities committed at the Nova festival in southern Israel.

The exhibition, which will run for six weeks in the Shoreditch section of London, aims to show visitors how what began as a music festival suddenly turned into a scene of mass terror and slaughter.

During the Hamas attack on the Nova festival, 413 people were murdered and another 44 were kidnapped and taken into Gaza. At the same time, Hamas terrorists stormed nearby Israeli communities, including Be’eri, Kfar Aza, and Nir Oz, carrying out brutal massacres against civilians.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Chayat recounted how she fled as gunfire erupted around the festival grounds, with bullets flying overhead as she ran for safety.

At one point during her escape, she noticed an abandoned ambulance in an open field where several young people had already taken shelter.

“I got inside, but something told me it was a death trap,” she recalled.

That instinct proved lifesaving. Shortly after she fled the ambulance, Hamas terrorists opened fire on the vehicle, which later became known as the “death ambulance.” Everyone hiding inside was murdered.

Later, Chayat spotted a man waving to her from a nearby field. Initially terrified that he might be a terrorist, she soon realized he was another festivalgoer. The two entered a vehicle together, but terrorists quickly began shooting at them.

“I saw bodies, burned cars and smoke everywhere,” she said. “I lay on the floor of the car, put the siddur on my head and began reciting Shema.”

After the vehicle was struck by gunfire and came to a stop, Chayat continued fleeing together with the man she had met, Avi Dadon hy”d. At one point, the two fell to the ground and pretended to be dead, but Hamas terrorists discovered them.

According to Chayat, eight terrorists dressed in civilian clothing surrounded them while armed with knives, hammers, and clubs.

The terrorists initially seized Chayat and then pulled Dadon out as well.

“He offered them money, said he had children, and begged,” she recounted.

Chayat said that at that moment she realized she needed to remain emotionally strong and avoid showing fear.

She then described how the terrorists noticed a scar on her right arm — a scar left from a childhood burn injury. Months later, she said, she was told that the terrorists viewed such scars as carrying spiritual significance and saw them as a sign of strength.

“I used to hate this scar,” she said. “Today I love it.”

According to Chayat, the leader of the terrorist cell gave her his coat and informed both her and Dadon that they would be taken to Gaza.

The pair were marched for more than two hours until Dadon finally refused to continue. Chayat said she was then forced to watch the terrorists murder him before her eyes.

“They killed him there, Avi, my angel,” she said.

Afterward, the terrorists forced her into an abandoned vehicle, but it failed to start. The group later returned toward the festival grounds, where they attempted to break open cash registers at the main bar area.

At one point, one of the terrorists pressed a knife against her face and warned her not to flee. However, Chayat said the leader of the group quietly signaled to her that she was free to go.

She immediately began running and later hid for hours near bodies at the massacre site until Israeli military forces eventually arrived and rescued her.

“Since Nova, I am a completely different person,” she said. “There is a reason I didn’t die. I feel that now I found my purpose, to tell my story to others.”

Chayat said the scar that once caused her years of embarrassment and ridicule during childhood ultimately became the very thing that saved her life.

“It was the thing I hated most,” she said. “Now I understand that everything is for the good, even after 30 years.”

{Matzav.com}