May Hayat: The scar I hated as a child saved my life from Hamas terrorists (video)
The 33-year-old survivor of the Hamas attack is shocked by her testimony in London, describing how she escaped rape and death while grieving.
News Room
21 May 2026
The 33-year-old survivor of the assault of Hamas is shocked by her testimony in London, describing how she escaped rape and death, while mourning her best friend.
A compelling and deeply human story of survival through the hell of October 7, 2023 has been brought to light by May Hayat. The 33-year-old from Tel Aviv was in London on the occasion of an emotional new exhibition in Sorites, which captures through audiovisual footage the horror of the “Nova” festival in southern Israel, where 413 people died and 44 were kidnapped.
May was working at the festival’s main bar with her 26-year-old best friend, Liron Barda. When rockets began tearing up the sky and the music stopped abruptly, the two friends tried to escape, but went their separate ways. Liron heroically chose to stay behind to help the wounded on stretchers, a decision that cost her her life as she was murdered shortly afterwards by terrorists.
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May’s wanderings in the field of carnage were a constant struggle of survival instinct. She initially hid in a police outpost and then avoided an abandoned ambulance, feeling it was a death trap. Her instincts came true as the vehicle was hit seconds after by an anti-tank missile, dragging 18 people to their deaths.
The most dramatic moment came when May, along with another fugitive, Avi Danton, was spotted in a hollow pit by eight armed terrorists. Seeing their ferocious moods, the 33-year-old tried to show complete composure. When the gunmen approached her with the intention of sexually assaulting her, they noticed on her right arm a large scar from a burn she had suffered as a baby, which she had recently covered with a tattoo.
As she explained, this scar acted as a “shield”, as terrorists, due to certain religious and spiritual prejudices, thought that abusing a woman with such a mark would deprive them of the reward of the “72 virgins” in heaven.
The gunmen decided to take her hostage in Gaza, along with Avi. During the hike, Avi at one point refused to get up from the ground and was murdered in cold blood in front of her eyes.
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May was led back to the festival site, where the team leader, again influenced by her “resistant” presence and scar, finally released her. The 33-year-old managed to hide under a tent, smearing her face with blood next to two dead men, where she remained motionless for two and a half hours until she was rescued by the Israeli army.
Today, still trying to come to terms with the deep trauma and loss of Liron, May looks at her scar in a completely different light: “It was the thing I hated most about myself. The kids used to make fun of me when I was little. Now I realize it’s all for a purpose. Thanks to that scar, they didn’t rape me, and when they saw I was strong, they didn’t kidnap me. I used to despise it, now I love it.”
