Stolen phone returned to man whose sons were killed on Oct. 7; photos can be recovered

Israeli police have recovered the cellphone of a father whose two sons were murdered by Hamas terrorists at the October 7 music festival massacre, after it was stolen earlier this week in Tel Aviv, Hebrew media reported Friday.

Officers raided an apartment in Holon overnight Thursday and arrested a Sudanese migrant worker suspected of stealing the device from Jojo Rabia of Moshav Yesha, near the Gaza Strip, according to the reports.

The phone contained photos, recordings, and conversations with Rabia’s sons, Noam and Yuval, which he believed had been lost.

The phone was found in the suspect’s possession, but its contents had been erased. Police told Rabia that investigators could restore the data.

Rabia had appealed publicly for help earlier this week after realizing the phone had been taken.

“Everything was on that phone, all the memories of my children,” he was quoted as saying. “Photos, recordings, final conversations. All the memories were gone.”

He said Friday that following the theft, his children’s friends had opened WhatsApp groups and shared materials and memories, giving him “even more [photos] than I had before.”

He expressed gratitude to the police and the wider public: “The whole country rallied to look for this phone. It’s just amazing… The police did incredible work, and it’s not simple to find a phone like that.”

Yuval and Noam Rabia, 33 and 30 were murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 at the Psyduck music festival near Kibbutz Nirim.

Noy Zaafrani, Yuval’s fiancée, was also killed in the massacre.

Noam, whose friends called him ‘Nomzy,’ was remembered as a unique soul — the life of the party, a funny guy who loved to dance.

Yuval was memorialized as a talented artist and musician, creative and gifted across many different fields.

The Psyduck festival was an outdoor trance party held the same weekend as the Supernova festival.