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Bullets kicked up desert sand and rockets exploded overhead as Astar Moshe ran for his life and the life of his unborn child.
Astar, 35, was three months pregnant and suffering from morning sickness on October 7.
But with Hamas terrorists hot on his heels, he continued advancing for more than 21 kilometers before finally reaching safety.
“A kind of maternal instinct took over me,” she said of her ordeal at the now-infamous Nova music festival exactly six months ago.
“I would do anything to protect my son,” she said. ‘There was no way they would kill us. “We were going to survive and that was it.”
Astar Moshe, 35 (left), pictured with his partner Shlomi Toby, 37, in hospital after the birth of their son Benaya Moshe.
Insurance worker Astar gave birth to 6-pound Benaya Moshe two weeks ago. She and her partner Shlomi, a building maintenance manager, call him his “miracle.”
Astar pictured on the left wearing a black hoodie with a blue logo and leggings at the Nova Festival as the rocket launch began.
Insurance worker Astar photographed at a different music festival, not Nova Festival, last year.
Insurance worker Astar gave birth to 6-pound Benaya Moshe two weeks ago. She and her partner Shlomi, 37, a building maintenance manager, call it her “miracle.”
Astar told The Mail on Sunday: “When I found out I was pregnant we tried to cancel tickets to the festival, but we couldn’t. So we thought, ‘Why not? Let’s have some more fun.’
While at the festival, at 6.30am on October 7, the couple were startled by sirens and explosions.
Astar, Shlomi and friends in Moshav Patish, an IDF-protected settlement where they found refuge
A bullet hole in the car with which the couple was going to try to escape when the attack at the Nova Festival began
A covered bullet hole and a broken window in the car they almost got away in before police told them to flee.
“We decided to get out and take the car, but then we saw bullet holes and two police officers told us to run,” Astar recalled. “If we had left, we would have been executed, since the first cars to leave practically did not make it.”
‘We didn’t know where to run and we had no idea where we were going. “There was smoke around us, bombs everywhere and they were shooting at us.”
At one point, Shlomi was sprayed in the face with sand from ricocheting bullets, but during a lull in the shooting he encouraged his fiancée to rest. “I told him if he stopped that would be it, I couldn’t give up,” Astar said.
Finally, after running the equivalent of a half marathon, the couple reached a settlement protected by the Israel Defense Forces.
“I was shocked when we started to realize the magnitude of what was happening,” Astar said. “I thank my lucky stars that I wasn’t kidnapped in Gaza and had to give birth there.”