RE’IM, Israel — What was once a place of music and dancing was deathly silent, bar the odd rumble of artillery in the distance.
On Thursday, in the vast field in southern Israel where thousands had gathered for the open-air Tribe of Nova festival, half-empty bottles of vodka lined the main bar, flies circled above, and sandals lay in the grass — the only remnants of fleeing concertgoers.
The cars, some of them bullet-ridden, were packed with the essentials: tents, sleeping bags, crates of beer. A few are now marked with the letter X, signifying they have been checked for explosives.
The site near the Israel-Gaza border was flooded with Israeli combat troops, many of them paratroopers.
“This is a massacre,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, told NBC News.
Surveying the scene where ZAKA, a nongovernmental rescue and recovery organization, said 260 people had been killed, Hagari added that it looked “like something from World War II.”
It’s a far cry from videos posted to social media before the incursion, showing young people dancing to trance music under a giant Buddha statue and prayer flags.
People had come to the event “to hear music, to do love, they wanted to live,” Hagari said.
Even five days on, the area did not feel safe.
When a man in a white robe walked onto the site, soldiers approached him, weapons pointed. Fearing he had a bomb, they shouted at him to sit down and undress. When he spoke in Arabic, some of the soldiers fired into the air, as he started to take his clothes off, before they hauled him away.
An agonizing question hangs over the grounds: Where were the soldiers Saturday morning when dozens of Hamas militants blew through Israel’s heavily fortified separation fence, crossed into the country from Gaza and opened fire on revelers?
Hagari was clear that the military was to blame for the incursion.
“It’s the responsibility of the army for intelligence,” he said. “It is our responsibility to guard the people of Israel. We failed on Saturday.”
“Now we are fighting,” he added, before vowing to return the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas.
His words echoed those of Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff, who earlier admitted to security failures in the brutal incursion.
Music festivals are common in Israel, drawing young people from around the country, as well as travelers from abroad. They often reflect the influence of destinations like India and Nepal, where many young Israelis visit after their military service.
Blowing off steam and dancing all night with friends is a cultural right of passage in Israel, a tragic foil to the brutal hostage-taking and killing that took place Saturday.
All that remains in Re’im is a large tent, where youngsters danced away a few days earlier, colorful sheets still hanging, blowing in the wind.