Ben Shimoni, 31: Music-loving 'angel' who saved 9 from Supernova

Ben Shimoni, 31, was killed trying to save a group of people from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7.

Shimoni attended the doomed event and initially made it to safety, fleeing from the unfolding Hamas massacre in his vehicle with four frantic strangers in the car. He dropped them off in Beersheba some 30 minutes away and, despite their distraught pleas to stay, he quickly headed back to the festival to save more people.

Shimoni made one more such trip, saving another group of five people and yet again heading back to rescue more, according to family, friends, and witness accounts. He was killed on that third rescue attempt after his vehicle came under heavy gunfire from Hamas terrorists who set up a checkpoint on the road.

The moment was captured on the car’s dashcam. It showed terrorists opened fire at the vehicle, spraying the windshield with bullets and then the car slows down and crashes into another vehicle on the side of the road.

The car was later found riddled with bullets and glass, but empty.

Shimoni was initially considered missing, as his family, his girlfriend, and many friends published post after post on social media desperately pleading for any information on his whereabouts.

His passengers in the vehicle on that final trip were also initially missing. Partygoer Gaya Halifa, who was on the phone with her dad when the vehicle came under fire, was found dead days later. Her best friend Romi Gonen, who was shot and injured, was taken hostage by terrorists and has been held in Gaza since October 7.

A fourth passenger, Ofir Tzarfati, who was also shot and injured was presumed captive but later confirmed dead. On December 1, the military announced it had recovered his body from Gaza

Shimoni saved at least nine lives that day and died trying to save three more.

His family and friends say he was exactly the kind of person who would put himself in danger to save others. The story of his heroism that day is legendary among survivors of the Supernova massacre, where at least 360 people were slaughtered, amid brutal atrocities and accounts of rape, sexual abuse, and torture.

Israeli band Synergia released a song based on a poem about Shimoni.

“Who is the person who goes back into hell, a moment after he escaped,” goes the first line of the lyrics.

A graffiti artist also captured Shimoni’s image on a “wall of heroes” in Tel Aviv to honor those who saved others from the death and destruction on October 7. He appears alongside Awad Darawshe, a paramedic who was killed at Supernova as he treated wounded partygoers, Staff Sgt. Aner Elyakim Shapiro, an unarmed off-duty soldier who tossed back grenades terrorists had thrown inside a packed public bomb shelter near the music festival until he was killed, and Amit Mann, a paramedic and paramedic course instructor who was murdered by terrorists when they stormed the clinic in Kibbutz Be’eri where she was treating the wounded.

Shimoni, said his girlfriend Jessica Elter, was “an angel, and my hero, nobody else I know would risk their lives like that,” she told the Jewish Chronicle after the October 7 shock Hamas attack.

Shimoni’s cousin, Keren Shimoni, told the UK’s Independent publication that the family was heartbroken when they learned of his death but “not shocked that Ben would go do what he feels is right, regardless of the risk to himself, that’s within his character.”

“There is hardly a person who met Ben — and did not fall in love with him immediately,” Elter said. “It happened to me too. He entered the heart of everyone who knew and met him.”

Shimoni and Elter first met about six years ago in Jerusalem where Shimoni co-owned two businesses — a bar and a late-night eatery — and came to be known in the Israeli music and nightclub scene.

She described him as “shy, loyal, very honest with every person he met, and never said no to someone in need. He always put others before himself, truly. He had the best heart ever. And the thing he did that morning testifies to the person he was.”

The couple had previously attended the annual Supernova festival together several times.

“Nova was for everyone, it included everyone; all kinds of people, of all ages, backgrounds and countries, all just coming together to hear good music and for peace,” said Elter, who decided not to go this year and stayed behind in her and Shimoni’s shared apartment in Ashkelon.

On October 7, Shimoni called Elter during his rescue trips. “While he was driving, I would hear shooting and rockets exploding, one of which landed very close to the car, but still he was more worried about me. He told me to shut the doors and be careful, and to take care of his mum who was staying with us,” she recounted.

“Suddenly, I heard Ben asking, confused but not afraid, if some people in the road were Hamas terrorists or Israeli police. I heard the girls in the back screaming and pleading with Ben at the top of their lungs to ‘Drive, drive, drive!’ I heard a lot of yelling in Arabic and a big crash, some shooting and, after a minute of quiet the phone just hung up.”

Elter said it’s now her life’s mission to keep Shimoni’s memory. “This is the only thing I can do for him now,” she said.