California woman hid under bodies at Israeli music festival to avoid detection

International News | The Hill

Lee Sasi, an American woman from California, was attending the music festival several miles from the Gaza border when the Palestinian militant group Hamas began attacking concertgoers, killing hundreds.

In an interview with NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Sasi said she hid with her uncle, who died protecting her from a grenade, and a friend, who was shot defending the bomb shelter they were in. Her pregnant cousin is missing and thought to have been kidnapped.

Sasi said the Hamas militants were laughing as they shot concertgoers.

“They were so excited in their voice and it was like joy to them,” Sasi told host Chris Cuomo. “Like they were waiting to kill us.”

For hours, she hid under a pile of dead bodies until she was rescued. Sasi said she feels deaf in one of her ears after from the noise of gunshots and rockets.

Sasi said she decided to hide underneath dead bodies in the shelter to protect herself from the oncoming grenades.

“Everybody was dying in front of me,” she said. “I was sitting on them and then they started throwing grenades. I had to bury myself under the bodies to protect myself.”

She said she hopes people update the SOS tracking on their cellphones, which ultimately helped her be rescued hours later.

Sasi said she hopes her story will make a difference.

The Biden administration said it believes at least 20 Americans are still missing in Israel, and more than 100 Israeli citizens may have been taken too.

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