Oct. 7 survivors and bereaved to hold separate commemorations at Nova site, Tel Aviv

Kumu, formed by October 7 mourners, and Nova Tribe community each plan ceremonies on anniversary of the 2023 Hamas terrorist attack, timed so that both can be attended

By Jessica Steinberg

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Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

When mourners and survivors mark the third anniversary of the bloody 2023 Hamas attack on Wednesday next week, some may attend two events on the same evening: the major memorial ceremony organized by Kumu (“Rise Up”) and held in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, and another one at Re’im, the site of the Nova desert rave in Israel’s south.

It’s the first time both ceremonies are being held on the same night.

Both Kumu and Nova felt it was vital to hold their ceremonies on the anniversary of October 7, the day the massacre occurred, said organizers.

“We’re returning to the place where everything stopped,” said Reef Peretz, CEO of the Nova Tribe Community Association. “The survivors will be there, and the bereaved, and all the hostages have returned. It’s the first time we’re all together since October 7.”

The circles of Nova survivors and bereaved now extend to some 15,000 people, said Peretz, having grown since the return of the remaining 20 living hostages last October.

Eleven of the 20 hostages released last October were taken captive from the Nova rave: Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or, Yosef-Haim Ohana, Elkana Bohbot, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Rom Braslavski, Eitan Mor, Segev Kalfon, Maxim Herkin and Bar Kupershtein.

The 20 living hostages released on October 13, 2025: First row, from left: Elkana Bohbot, Matan Angrest, Avinatan Or, Yosef-Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel. Second row, from left: Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Rom Braslavski, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman. Third row, from left: Eitan Mor, Segev Kalfon, Nimrod Cohen, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn. Final row, from left: Matan Zangauker, Bar Kupershtein, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Omri Miran.

This is the third year bereaved families will gather at Re’im to remember their loved ones killed at the Nova rave, but it’s the first time the entire rave community, including the Nova Tribe Community Association, will be there.

Members of Israel’s various rave communities were all at the Nova on October 7, 2023; the smaller Psyduck music festival was also held nearby on the same day, in the fields between Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbutz Nirim, where a total of 17 people were killed by Hamas terrorists.

Peretz called the planned ceremony “an engine for healing the trauma.”

The Nova gathering will begin at 6:29 p.m. in Re’im, mirroring when the Hamas terrorists attacked at 6:29 a.m., killing 378 people and taking 44 hostages to Gaza.

Relatives and friends visit the site where revelers were killed and kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, by Hamas terrorists at the Nova music festival, near Kibbutz Re’im, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (AP/Leo Correa)

“This is to honor the memory of the partygoers from the Nova, Mushroom, Psyduck and Midburn festivals who were brutally murdered that day,” said Peretz. “It’s not about the kibbutzim or the soldiers; it’s just about the community of the Nova.”

Tens of thousands of survivors and mourners are expected to attend the Kumu Tel Aviv event, which will begin at 9:15 p.m., making it possible, although with tight timing, for people to attend both ceremonies.

The Tel Aviv ceremony is a massive, emotional, intensive event organized by Kumu — a movement founded by survivors and families of victims, including fallen soldiers, those killed at the kibbutzim and hostages killed in captivity — that has stood in place of an official state ceremony for the last two years and is broadcast live on most of Israel’s main TV channels.

At the end of the Kumu October 7 ceremony in Tel Aviv, on October 7, 2025. (Courtesy Eclipse Media)

At Kumu in Tel Aviv, one of this year’s hosts is former hostage Eli Sharabi, whose wife and two daughters were killed at their home in Kibbutz Be’eri.

Members of the Nova community have always been included at Kumu in Tel Aviv; Nova survivor and Eurovision 2025 contestant Yuval Raphael performed at last year’s Kumu ceremony.

This year, Raphael, who survived the massacre by hiding for hours in a roadside shelter, will sing at the Nova ceremony in Re’im.

“It is very difficult for me to return there, very painful and even frightening, to stand before all the dear people who lost what was most precious to them and sing, but it is the only and exact place where I want and need to be, and I am grateful for the enormous privilege of doing so,” said Raphael in a statement.

The roadside bomb shelter where Yuval Raphael hid for hours after fleeing the Nova festival on October 7, seen on May 13, 2024. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

The Nova Tribe continues to fundraise for Nova survivors, the bereaved and their families.

“We’ll do everything we can to bring everyone here,” said Peretz, who handled marketing for the original rave, although he was not in attendance on October 7.

The government will mark the October 7 massacre on October 5, which is closer to the Hebrew anniversary of the Hamas attack, and not on October 7, the date in the Gregorian calendar.

A spokesperson for the government ceremony said the event would be held at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery.