Hostage Shlomi Ziv, part of the Nova rave security team, rescued by IDF from Gaza

After eight months of captivity, on June 8, 2024, the IDF announced it rescued Hamas hostage Shlomi Ziv from central Gaza. He is reportedly in good condition, according to initial medical assessments. Below are the first reports of his capture from the Supernova music festival near Re’im:

Shlomi Ziv, 41, was working as part of the security detail at the Supernova desert rave on October 7, when Hamas terrorists attacked, shooting and killing some 350 and taking dozens captive to Gaza.

Adi Kikozashvili, one of his two sisters, spoke to Ziv at 7:30 a.m. that morning when he told her that everything was fine: Terrorists were shooting and there had been sirens for incoming rockets, but he and the rest of the team were at the cars and heading home.

Shlomi was one of the security ushers, and did not carry ammunition, said Kikozashvili, in several interviews.

Ziv told his sister about the bottleneck of cars trying to leave the area of the party.

His last conversation was with his other sister, Revital. As he was breathing heavily, he said, “I’ll call you back.”

“They didn’t understand the size of this attack,” said Ziv’s sister Adi. “People went to have fun and didn’t come back. It’s a life-long trauma.”

Ziv had gone to the party with two others, Aviv Eliyahu, his wife’s relative who was the security manager at the festival, and Jake Marlowe, a friend. Both were killed.

It took several weeks for Ziv’s wife Miran to be informed that her husband was officially considered among the captives in Gaza.

“What kind of reality have we entered,” said Adi, Shlomi’s sister.

Both sisters described Shlomi as a typical older brother, the first to offer help, a “smiling kind of guy.”