New Yorker who survived Hamas’ slaughter of 260 people at a music festival says she ‘feels safer in Israel than the US’ as anti-Semitic protests rage across the country

Natalie Sanandaji, 28, ran for her life while getting gunned down by terrorists on October 7, ultimately surviving the horrific massacre
Although she made it out alive and returned to her home in Long Island a week later, she said she does not feel any safer back in the US
What scares her more than anything, is the anti-Semitism she’s witnessed since being back home

A New Yorker who survived Hamas’ slaughter of 260 people at a music festival said she ‘feels safer in Israel than the US’ – as anti-Semitic protests rage across the country.

Natalie Sanandaji, 28, ran for her life while getting gunned down by terrorists on October 7, ultimately surviving the horrific massacre.

Although she made it out alive and returned to her home in Long Island a week later, she said she does not feel any safer back in the US.

‘A lot of people have asked if I’m scared to go back to Israel after everything that’s happened, and my honest answer is … now more than ever, I want to move to Israel,’ Sanandaji told The New York Post.

‘Even with everything going on, I feel safer there than I do in the US right now.’

Natalie Sanandaji, 28, ran for her life while getting gunned down by terrorists on October 7, ultimately surviving the horrific massacre

Although she made it out alive – unlike over 250 other attendees – and returned to her home in Long Island a week later, she said she does not feel any safer back in the US

Following the attack, there have been pro-Palestinian protests across the country – with some demonstrators praising Hamas or unable to condemn the terrorist group

What scares her more than anything, is the anti-Semitism she’s witnessed since being back home.

‘A lot of the things I’ve been hearing and seeing since getting back. A lot of the videos of the protests. These pro-Palestinian protests. Something I would like to say about that is, whatever side you’re on in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, all the power to you’ she said to Fox Digital.

‘But this is not about Israel-Palestine. This is about Hamas, a terrorist organization who is just as complicit in the deaths of these innocent Palestinians as they are in the deaths of innocent Israelis.’

‘This is about a terrorist organization attacking the Jews and killing innocent people, killing innocent people at a music festival, killing innocent grandmas who survived the Holocaust, just to be killed by Hamas, burning babies alive.’

‘That’s not going to save Palestine,’ she added. ‘That’s not going to free Palestine.’

Following the attack, there have been pro-Palestinian protests across the country – with some demonstrators praising Hamas or unable to condemn the terrorist group.

‘The amount of antisemitism I’ve seen in videos since coming back to New York, antisemitism all over Europe and the United States, that scares me more than anything,’ Sanandaji told Fox Digital.

‘For so long, as a Jew growing up in America, you’re always taught about the Holocaust, and you’re taught about the way our people were treated and the way so many people just stood by and watched as the Holocaust happened. And you’re taught to never forget. And my whole life, I tried to understand how could — how could the world stand by? How could the world stand by and let that happen? And it’s sad to say that I’m now starting to realize how. And I don’t feel safe.’

Sanandaji’s shared her traumatic experience escaping the music festival, noting the many heroes along the way who help her survive.

‘One of the girls from our campsite came and woke us up to let us know that there had been some rockets that were sent in our direction that had been intercepted by the Iron Dome [missile defense system], that everything was fine, that it’s normal for the area that we’re in and that hopefully it will just be a few, and then the party will continue,’ Sanandaji told Fox News Digital.

150 were arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest in New York on Friday. It was the latest protest as thousands took to the streets across the globe

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the steps of the New York City Public Library and marched toward Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Midtown office Friday evening, before blocking traffic on 5th Avenue

Demonstrators are seen flooding the streets of Ramallah on Tuesday evening in support of the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip

‘I want people to try to imagine anywhere else in the world where a festival is taking place, taking place with such young kids attending, and they see rockets being intercepted over their heads and their automatic reaction is, ‘Oh, this is normal because of the area that we’re in. This happens. It’s fine.”

‘And at this point, we still didn’t know that there were terrorists on foot just a few feet away from us with guns,’ Sanandaji said.

Sanandaji expressed the surreal feeling of knowing how close she came to death. At every corner, she was just seconds from a different fate.

She went to the bathroom before leaving the festival, and later watched videos of Hamas terrorists shooting at the same stalls she was in – likely just moments after she left.

‘I go to the bathroom, and a couple of days ago I saw a video that surfaced of the Hamas terrorists coming and shooting at those exact bathrooms and just shooting at every single stall, just trying to kill anybody who was inside.’

‘And that’s one of the times since the festival happened, where it really hit me how close I was to death. That I could have been in those stalls. If I was in those stalls just a few moments later, I might not be here today.’

‘As a survivor it’s almost hard to believe that you were there, that you went through all of that,’ she said to The Post. ‘When you see all the posts everyday of all the people that were missing and now found dead. It just feels very surreal that that could’ve been you.’

Protestors called for the end of US aid to Israel as it defends itself against Hamas terrorists, who are holding around 200 people hostage since their brutal October 7 slaughtering that killed 1,400 people

NYPD arrested those who were blocking the road on 5th Ave and refused to leave

Sanandaji praised security staff for their efforts in getting attendees out safely, most who lost their lives in the process – as well as civilian heroes who came back to save those running to safety,

‘One of the scariest things was running in a certain direction, thinking that you’re running to safety and then suddenly seeing dozens of kids from this festival running in your direction and realizing that they’re running from a terrorist, that they’re running from gunshots, and that the direction that you’ve been going in is not taking you to safety,’ she said. ‘You don’t know what decision is going to either save your life or get you killed.’

She ran for four hours straight in the sun without water before finally taking a rest. She and her friends spotted a pickup truck coming their way. Assuming it was terrorist, they feared the worst and planned to accept their fate.

‘At first, we thought it was a terrorist coming to kill us. And we all kind of thought to get up for a second, and then we all kind of just looked at each other and realized, ‘Where are we going to run to?’ she said. ‘So we just sat back down, and eventually when the car got to us, we saw that there was a girl in the car who had the festival bracelet on, and we realized that this was someone from the town of Patish who left the security of his town and drove toward the terrorists and risked his own life to try to save our lives.’

The man dropped them off in the closest town, before immediately turning around to help others escape.

‘I didn’t even have a chance to thank him, and he just went straight back and risked his life all over again,’ Sanandaji said.

Sanandaji everyone in the town came together to volunteer and help them following the horrors they experienced.

‘The people of this town really came together to help us and to protect us. They put all of us in the local bomb shelter. They brought us food. They brought us water. There were people walking around reading off a list of names from their phone sent to them, from parents and family and friends who couldn’t get in touch with kids that were at the festival,’ she said.

A protester holds a placard during the Pro-Palestine demonstration in Paris

Protesters chant slogans during a demonstration in front of the Israeli embassy in Madrid

A protester makes gestures while chanting slogans during the Pro-Palestine demonstration

More than 250 people were killed and 150 are expected to have been taken hostage by Hamas.

‘Trying to, like, realize that so many people that you were dancing right next to that you were having such a good time with… you see all their faces in your head, and then you see photos of them days later online, and you realize that they did not come out as lucky as you did,’ Sanandaji said to Fox Digital.

‘That they had either been killed or, worse, kidnapped. And the reason why I say ‘worse, kidnapped’ is because so many parents have said that once they found out that their kid was killed, they said, ‘Thank God,’ because being kidnapped by monsters like these and being tortured the way that they’re torturing these children is, honestly, a worse fate than being killed by them.’

More than 150 pro-Palestinian protestors were arrested while calling for a Gaza ceasefire in New York City as demands mount for Biden to stop giving aid to Israel.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the steps of the New York City Public Library and marched toward Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Midtown office Friday evening, before blocking traffic on 5th Avenue.

This is the latest protest as thousands took to the streets across the globe – in Bangladesh, South Korea, Lebanon and Iraq – with some burning American, British and Israeli flags and holding signs that read ‘USA go to hell and ‘Death to Israel.’

Hundreds of Iraqi protesters gathered at Iraq’s border crossing with Jordan in a demonstration organized by the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Iran-backed Shia political groups and militias in Iraq.

A thousand more protesters gathered outside the US embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, today where they burned Israeli flags and portraits of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden.

In Bangladesh, the scene of fierce demonstrations last week, hundreds of Muslims gathered on the streets of Dhaka following their Friday prayers, while in Turkey, demonstrators set fire to British and Israeli flags as well as an effigy of Netanyahu.

And in South Korea’s capital of Seoul, scores of protesters shouted ‘Stop the massacre by Israel’ as they waved Palestinian flags and raised anti-Israel banners.

The protests come as Israel prepares for a imminent ground invasion of the war-torn enclave, with columns of Israeli tanks massed on the Israel-Gaza border and thousands of soldiers readying themselves for battle today.

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