Amit Ben Avida, 19: Partygoer dreamed of global trance music career

Amit Yehuda Ben Avida, 19, from Tel Aviv, was murdered by Hamas terrorists while trying to flee the Supernova music festival on October 7.

Amit attended the rave with his girlfriend, Karin Shwarcman, an off-duty soldier, his aunt, Ziv Abud, and Ziv’s boyfriend, Eliya Cohen.

The four of them left the festival together after the rocket fire began, and stopped to seek safety in a roadside bomb shelter. Amit and Karin were both murdered when Hamas terrorists threw grenades inside and opened fire on the partygoers. Eliya was kidnapped from the shelter while Ziv managed to survive by hiding under piles of bodies. Eliya was freed from captivity in February 2025.

Amit was buried in Holon on October 17. He is survived by his parents, Lizi and Yitzhak, and his siblings Ori, 14, and Emma, 6.

Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Amit was always a free spirit, his family said, and was very opinionated.

He attended high school in Tel Aviv and he was slated to begin his studies at the BPM College of Music in Tel Aviv shortly after he was killed.

Amit’s family said he loved nature and loved to watch the sunrise, but more than anything he loved music and trance music festivals, and dreamed of producing his own music and performing at festivals in Israel and around the world.

His family didn’t let anybody touch the music he left behind until Eliya returned from captivity. They shared a video online of Eliya working on Amit’s tracks in March 2025.

Singers Netta Barzilai and Kfir Tsafrir — a friend of Ziv — released a duet, titled “Natek Oti,” (Disconnect Me) inspired by a line in the eulogy Amit’s mother read at his funeral, which she said was something he would say when a conversation got too heavy.

Amit’s younger brother, Ori, said in a memorial video that there “were two versions of Amit, the quiet, calm Amit with his family, and the Amit of music festivals, louder… more dominant, dancing with energy. He was a very social guy, he connected to everyone.”

When he and Karin started dating, Ori said, Karin urged the brothers to become closer, “and we’d go out to movies together, we’d order food at night… In the summer vacation we’d order hamburgers at 2 or 3 a.m.”

Speaking at a Memorial Day ceremony at his high school, Amit’s mother, Lizi, said what she feels the most is the quiet.

“I miss his shouts when he’s playing on the computer with friends,” she said. “I miss the trance music that rang out loudly from his room. I miss the noise of his friends coming up and down the stairs in the middle of the night. I miss our arguments and our laughter.”

Now that he is gone, she said, “There’s nobody who sends me a ‘what is there to eat’ message or sends me new food trends or a TikTok video of a new restaurant that just opened. I want us to remember him as he would have wanted — a boy of peace, love, music and freedom.”

Read more Those We Have Lost stories here.