Israeli dad missing after he rushed to save daughter from music festival near Gaza Strip
An Israeli man is missing after he rushed to the trance music festival near the Gaza Strip in a desperate attempt to save his 20-year-old daughter as a violent horde of Hamas terrorists descended upon the rave.
The family of Mark Peretz told The Post Sunday that they have not seen the 51-year-old dad since he sped away from their home in Rishon LeZion on Saturday morning.
Peretz went into harm’s way the moment he learned violence had erupted at the Tribe of Nova music festival his daughter Maya was attending.
“[He] dropped everything and drove there,” Peretz’s daughter-in-law, Jessica Cohen, 24, told The Post.
“Even given the situation, given the fact that there were rockets being thrown over our heads. Given the fact that he saw Hamas terrorists riding into Israel, taking parachutes into Israel… he went to go rescue Maya.”
As Peretz sped south, Maya was dodging through fields and sharp bushes to escape the Hamas militants, who were gunning down concertgoers, violently kidnapping women young and old, and in some cases shooting the legs off hostages so they couldn’t escape.
At least 260 have been reported dead at the festival, which witnesses have described as a “massacre” as the body count continues to rise. It is unclear how many people were carried off by the Hamas terrorists.
Maya and a group of about 12 people managed to pile into a car fleeing north, but were forced to abandon the vehicle as terrorists shot after them “non-stop.” They then hid in a police station for three terrifying hours, Cohen said.
At one point, Peretz was within 20 minutes of the police station where Maya was sheltering and called his family back in Rishon LeZion to check in before he was suddenly cut off.
“We were on the phone with him and we heard gunshots, and don’t know exactly sure what happened,” Cohen said.
Peretz had been sharing his location on his cell phone, and his son’s ex-military friends rushed to the area where he’d been to try to find him.
“We sent his friends to the area. They said they saw the car, but they don’t see anybody in it,” Cohen said.
Maya managed to find a safe ride home with one of her friend’s fathers, but nobody has seen or heard from Peretz since he vanished from the roadside.
“It’s just the scariest situation,” Cohen said. “We’re living a nightmare.”
“And not just me — everyone in Israel is hugging one another, but we’re living in a nightmare. We’re all living in this crazy terror attack, and it’s insane. It’s really just unfathomable.”
The family has been trying to track Peretz’s phone, but they said it has been moving erratically across the countryside in ways that don’t make sense, and Cohen said every lead they’ve gotten has just led to contradictory facts and more confusion.
Police and other authorities are still too overwhelmed with repelling the Hamas invaders to devote any resources to aid in the search for Peretz, let alone the countless others also missing, Cohen said.
“The police are dealing with so much other stuff right now. There are so many terrorists still out there, and the streets are really blocked off everywhere we go,” she said. “We were just at hospitals looking for him, we were just at police stations looking for any answers, trying to track his phone, trying to do anything.”
“There are thousands of families like us. There are thousands of families searching for their loved ones. Their loved ones might be still in the desert, they might be hiding in a home, you never know.”
“They’re terrorizing innocent people, they’re taking innocent young women into hostage, and god knows what they’re doing to them. It’s terrifying, and we need support from everyone,” she said.
“It’s way worse than I can ever explain it. It’s everybody’s nightmare.”
Hundreds of Israelis have been killed since Hamas forces descended on the country in a brutal sneak attack on Saturday. Thousands are injured, and at least a hundred people have been kidnapped as hostages.
As rockets continue to soar over Israel and gunfire cracks through the streets, the Peretzs remain undeterred in their search for a father whose first thought was always for his family.
“He’s just the best person in the world. He didn’t even think twice before he left the house yesterday morning,” Cohen said.
“His whole heart is his family.”
