Chen Ben Avi, 23: Dreamed of traveling the world
Murdered while fleeing the Supernova music festival on October 7
Chen Ben Avi, 23, of Mivtahim, was murdered by Hamas terrorists while fleeing the Supernova music festival on October 7.
She is survived by her parents, Oshrit and Moshe, and three younger siblings, Noam, Yael and Shai.
Chen and four of her friends fled the festival and nearly made it to her north-western Negev home in Mivtahim, but were unfortunately trapped and killed by terrorists at the nearby Zohar Junction.
Eventually, Chen and her friends, Shir Yaron, Dudi Turgeman, Dor Nahum, and Dan Damri, were found lying in the road, riddled with bullets.
“Although in the Gaza border area you experience a lot of scary moments,” Chen’s brother Noam Ben-Avi told Israeli media outlet Ynet of his sister’s death on October 7, “that morning was terrifying.”
The family hid in their safe room, waiting for Chen to return from the Supernova festival. At one point they heard gunshots outside, which they later discovered were the shots that killed Chen and her friends.
“They were so close,” Noam told Ynet. “But just two minutes before they got home, the terrorists killed them.”
Per an Army Radio tweet, Chen was looking forward to her upcoming trip to South America before she was killed.
Noam and Chen were, he said, “like cat and mouse” in their sibling relationship. “She would annoy me and I, with my short fuse, would get angry. We loved each other,” said Noam.
After his sister’s death, it became particularly important to Noam to fight for his country, and Ynet reported that he enlisted in the IDF in early December to join the Combat Engineering Corps. “With all the concerns and fears,” he said, “you have to stand up and protect your home.”
