Survivors confront their trauma at site of Hamas massacre of music festival
Those who escaped slaughter of 364 people on Oct. 7 at Supernova event visit location seeking closure, support from others who were there, or to give thanks for surviving
Neria Goelman and Hannah Zedek, who both escaped the bloody Hamas terror attack on the Supernova music festival in southern Israel six months ago, found the bush they were searching for.
“It was in this bush that we hid for four hours,” Goelman said, standing in front of the shrub.
“Then it caught fire because the terrorists fired grenades and we had to flee,” added the 21-year-old, who along with Zedek, 20, had been a security guard at the festival.
Thousands of young people had gathered on October 6 and 7 to dance to electronic music at the festival, which was held near the Re’im kibbutz close to the Gaza border.
Then, on October 7, the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a massive cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
The thousands of attackers who burst through the border with the Gaza Strip rampaged murderously through southern communities. Hundreds of gunmen surrounded the music festival and slaughtered 364 people amid other atrocities including gang rape and mutilation of victims.
The victims accounted for nearly a third of those killed during the Hamas attack. Terrorists also abducted 253 people who were taken as hostages to Gaza. Some of those kidnapped were dragged away from the music festival, with their abduction seen on video shared on social media.
Israel responded with a military offensive to destroy Hamas and free the hostages.
Goelman and Zedek returned to Re’im on Wednesday along with about 10 other survivors for a trip organized by a group called A Future for the Survivors and the Wounded.
Accompanied by AFP, the pair retraced the route they took as they fled the clearing where the festival was held.
After a 10-minute walk through the forest, they crossed a concrete road and found their hideout.
“I want to say thank you,” Zedek said as she scrambled through the bush’s branches.
‘Afraid to come back’
Out of the 253 people taken hostage during the Hamas attack, more than 40 had been at the festival. One hundred and twenty-nine hostages remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli army believes are dead.
In Re’im, the clearing that had once been the festival’s dance floor is now an open-air memorial, dotted with pictures of all the young people who were slain or kidnapped.
Relatives of the victims and other supporters come to the site to pay their respects, some leaving flowers.
It was the first time Mor Zalah had returned to the site since the attack.
“I have been wanting to come for a long time. I just felt this was the right moment,” the 27-year-old said.
On October 7, Zalah and her 19-year-old sister Carmel had walked for many hours before they were rescued.
But they lost track of Zalah’s boyfriend Idan.
When Zalah saw a photo of Idan at the spot where he was killed six months ago, she fell to the ground and burst into tears.
Sitting on a chair slightly away from the group, Guy Shema looked over the scene in silence.
“I was a bit afraid to come back,” the 23-year-old told AFP. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
Shema said she wants to “retrace what happened to fill in the missing parts” in her memory.
She is startled by the sound of Israeli strikes a few kilometers (miles) away in Gaza.
After the attack, Shema was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
At the Nova site, three therapists accompanied the group to offer psychological support.
‘Seems like it was yesterday’
Many of the survivors are still in distress, said Neria and Daniel Sharabi, who are 22 and 23 years old, respectively.
The brothers are considered heroes in Israel. They are credited with saving dozens of festival-goers by using weapons they found in a tank to fend off Hamas fighters.
Their best friend, Yossef Haim Ohana, 23, is believed to still be a hostage of Hamas.
“Our motto is ‘no one left behind,'” said Neria Sharabi at the spot where the tank once stood.
His brother Daniel said that “getting back to a normal life is very difficult.”
“Most survivors struggle to get back on their feet.”
Shema said: “It helps me to be with people who face the same problems.”
She has changed jobs four times in the past six months. “I can’t manage the stress,” she said.
“It still seems like it was yesterday.”
