Ilya Shametz, 35: Supernova guard planned to visit mom in Germany
Murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7
Ilya Shametz, 35, from Haifa, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.
Ilya was working as a guard as part of the festival production team that morning, in charge of checking tickets at the gate.
His family searched for a week for any word of him before they were informed that his body had been identified.
He was buried in Tel Regev near Haifa on October 15. He is survived by his parents, Igor and Larisa, and his grandmother.
Born in the former Soviet Union, Ilya moved to Israel at age 4, settling in Haifa, according to a memorial post. He attended the Alliance School and later studied at the Technion Institute.
In 2017, he was in a serious car accident, ultimately requiring years of rehabilitation.
Ilya lived with his father and grandmother in Haifa. He already had a plane ticket to go visit his mother, Larisa, who lived in Germany, for October 20, 2023 — a flight he never made.
“I’d already bought him everything he needed,” she told a local news site.
Larisa said she wasn’t allowed to identify her son’s body: “I just hope he died quickly, that he didn’t suffer.”
She said after the funeral, “The entire family sat together, we drank a little, we couldn’t sleep and we cried all night. It’s so hard.”
Larisa wrote on a Supernova Facebook page that the moment she realized her son had been at the festival, “our life was destroyed.”
“I didn’t even get to see him… didn’t get to say goodbye… I blame myself for not saving him, for not protecting him,” she wrote. “Forgive me, my dear Ilyushenka.”
His cousin, Dima, wrote on a memorial page that he recalled “being your babysitter over the summer break.”
Though they hadn’t seen each other for a number of years, Dima said that when he passes by the area where Ilya was killed, on his way to IDF reserve duty, “I close my eyes. You are always in my heart.”
