Young Israelis describe what they experienced when the sudden attack by Hamas on Israel began at dawn on Saturday, taking everyone by surprise.

While hundreds of Israelis danced at a rave party that had been set up, Hamas gunmen entered towns and villages across the border, the Guardian website reports.

Videos posted on social media showed dozens of people running through fields in an attempt to escape the militants as gunfire rang out.

“The music stopped and then the alarm sirens started,” a young woman named Ortal told Israel’s N12 News television. “Suddenly out of nowhere, they started shooting.”

Esther Borochov, who was also at the party, said a car hit her vehicle as she tried to flee before a young man told her and her friend to jump into his vehicle.

“I couldn’t move my legs,” he told Reuters at the hospital. “Soldiers came and took us to the bushes.”

One said: “We were in the middle of a rave party and suddenly we were being shot at from all sides.”

On Sunday, families continued to search for youths missing from the party.