Nova music festival massacre

On 7 October 2023, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian nationalist political organization Hamas, initiated a sudden attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. As part of the attack, 378 individuals (344 civilians and 34 security personnel) were killed and many more wounded at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, an open-air music festival during the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret near kibbutz Re'im. Hamas also took 44 people hostage, and men and women were reportedly subject to sexual and gender-based violence. Some 20 of the attackers were also killed by Israeli security forces in the area of the festival.^{[2][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]}

Nova music festival massacre
Part of the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel
Militant capturing a man during the massacre
Location	Eshkol Regional Council, Israel
Coordinates	31°23′52″N 34°28′18″E
Date	7 October 2023; 18 months ago (2023-10-07) Starting c. 7 a.m. (UTC+3)
Target	Israelis
Attack type	Mass shooting, hostage-taking
Weapons	Firearms including AK-type assault rifles, RPGs, hand grenades[1]
Deaths	378 festival attendees and security personnel[a][2] ~20 Palestinian militants[2]
Victims	44 taken hostage[b][2][3] 4 rescued 10 released 13 bodies recovered
Perpetrator	Al-Qassam Brigades and Palestinian civilian mobs[4]

This attack had the largest number of casualties out of a number of massacres targeting Israeli civilians in villages adjacent to the Gaza Strip, that occurred as part of the 7 October attack, alongside those at the kibbutzim and moshavim of Netiv HaAsara, Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz and Holit.^[12]

At 6:30 a.m., which was around sunrise, rockets were noticed in the sky.^[13][1] Around 7:00 a.m., a siren warned of an incoming rocket attack, prompting festivalgoers to flee.^[14] Subsequently, armed militants, dressed in military attire and using motorcycles, trucks and powered paragliders, surrounded the festival grounds and indiscriminately fired on individuals attempting to escape. Attendees seeking refuge in nearby locations, such as bomb shelters, bushes, and orchards, were killed while in hiding. Those who reached the road and parking were trapped in a traffic jam as militants fired at vehicles. The militants executed some wounded individuals at point-blank range as they crouched on the ground.^[15][16]

The details of the whereabouts and condition of the hostages are not publicly known.^[8][9][17] The massacre at the festival was the largest terror attack in Israel's history,^[1][18][16] and the worst Israeli civilian massacre ever.^[19]

Gathering and festivities

Supernova Sukkot Gathering was a weekend-long outdoor trance music festival that began on 6 October 2023^[20][21] and was produced by an organizer called Nova^[22][10] (also referred to as Tribe of Nova).^[23] It was the Israeli edition (pre-festival event) of Universo Paralello, a psychedelic trance festival started 23 years earlier in Bahia, Brazil.^[21] It took place in the western Negev desert,^[10] approximately 5 km (3.1 mi) from the Gaza–Israel barrier, near kibbutz Re'im.^[8][22] The line-up included artists well known in the psychedelic trance scene, such as Astral Projection and Man with No Name.^[21] The organizers switched to the site only two days before, after the original location in southern Israel did not work out.^[24] Scheduled to coincide with Jewish holidays: the final day of Sukkot (6 October) and Simchat Torah (7 October),^[8] the rave was billed as a celebration of "friends, love and infinite freedom".^[22] The festival site had three stages, a camping zone, and an area with a bar and food.^[8] Attendees described the crowd as mostly consisting of Israelis of ages 20–40 from across the country.^[10] Attendance was reported to be 3,500 but figures vary.^[25][c] Security guards and police were present at the festival.^[10][24]

Hamas assault

See also: Timeline of the Gaza war and List of engagements during the Israel–Hamas war § Massacres

The festival was one of the first targets of Hamas's surprise attack against Israel in the early morning hours of 7 October 2023.^[22] Israeli security services investigations have found it unlikely that Hamas had advanced knowledge of the festival, citing, among other evidence, that the festival had been planned to run until 6 October and was only recently extended to 7 October.^[26] The massacre was carried out by the 1st and 3rd companies of Hamas's Nuseirat Battalion. Their original target was the city of Netivot, but after noticing the party they turned back and headed in its direction, where they committed the massacre. Afterwards, they again headed towards Netivot but after seeing an Israeli tank turned back again and joined the Nuseirat Battalion's 2nd company at kibbutz Be'eri in perpetrating the Be'eri massacre.^[27][28]

The attack opened with a rocket barrage starting at about 6:30 AM that provided cover for infiltration. A rocket siren sounded in the area.^[10] Militants blasted through the border fence in numerous locations and began infiltrating into Israel. Some of the Hamas gunmen who attacked the festival infiltrated Israel via motorized paragliders.^[29][30] At 6:35 AM, the senior police commander on duty at the festival, Deputy Superintendent Nivi Ohana of the Ofakim police station, taking note of the unusually heavy rocket fire, decided to shut down the event and evacuate the partygoers. This decision is credited with saving hundreds of lives. Ohana also requested additional security and backup subsequently arrived, including a team from the Yasam riot control unit. Ohana and members of the production team called on the partygoers to disperse through loudspeakers. By 7:00 AM, Ohana had left to defend his city, which was also under attack. Partygoers began fleeing as the police directed them to evacuate along Route 232. At 7:13 AM, the Home Front Command officer at the Northern Brigade of the Gaza Division received an inaccurate update that some 90% of the partygoers had evacuated as well as that there were reports of gunfire, and passed it on. At this stage, the division wrongly understood that the party had largely dispersed.^[2][27][31]

Police directing traffic out of the area noticed that many partygoers were returning after coming under fire. Those who fled north were fired at by militants near Alumim, Be'eri, and Sa'ad, and those who then tried to flee south came under fire from militants who had captured junctions along the highway. After realizing what was happening along the evacuation routes, police opened a dirt path leading east, enabling thousands of people to escape through agricultural fields toward Patish, with people fleeing both by car and foot. Dozens of vehicles were abandoned by fleeing partygoers along Route 232 and on the festival grounds. Meanwhile, Hamas fighters murdered partygoers along the highway and at several roadside bomb shelters.^[2] Public roadside bomb shelters which were used as cover and subsequently became death traps as militants attacked them became known as the Death Shelters. Aner Shapira was credited with helping to protect the shelter he was in. After militants threw grenades into his shelter, he threw several back at them before being killed by a grenade. Hersh Goldberg-Polin was abducted from the same shelter after being seriously wounded.^[32]

By 8:00 AM, about 90% of the partygoers had evacuated the festival grounds. The only people remaining behind were police officers, event staff, and some partygoers who thought the grounds were safer than the roads. At the same time, a force of 110 Hamas fighters on 14 pickup trucks and two motorcycles entered Israel from Nuseirat, heading for Netivot. The force passed Be'eri, where a militant outside the kibbutz signaled to the force to continue along Route 232. However, the force got lost near Shokeda and instead of heading north and then east to Netivot, the militants headed south toward the Nova festival grounds. On the way, they stopped at a bomb shelter near Be'eri and murdered several people hiding there, including partygoers who fled the festival.^[2][33]

At 8:12 AM, the militants spotted a police roadblock near the festival and an exchange of fire began as the police officers, armed only with pistols, made a stand. At 8:14 AM, an RPG was fired at the roadblock, striking an abandoned vehicle and wounding several police officers and partygoers in the vicinity. Dozens of partygoers who had assembled near the police officers along the highway began to flee either back into the festival grounds or east through the fields. Those who fled into the festival grounds began looking for places to hide, taking cover in bushes, portable toilets, and dumpsters. Members of the staff also hid underneath the drink bars. An ambulance that had been in the area for the event also drove from its position at the entrance into the festival grounds and 20 people took cover in and around it.^[2]

At 8:20 AM, an IDF tank that had been stationed at the Paga military outpost and had sustained heavy fire while battling the Hamas invasion arrived. Two of the crewmen had been killed and another, Sergeant Ofir Testa, was seriously wounded, with only the driver, Corporal Ido Somech, able to keep fighting. The tank arrived in the midst of combat between the militants and police. Upon seeing the tank, the militants halted their advance and opened fire on the tank with RPGs and gunfire. In spite of his injuries, Testa got out of the tank and gave his assault rifle to a festival security guard who was unarmed. He was then killed by gunfire as he turned to head back to the tank. The militants attempted to climb onto the tank as Somech shot at them, killing one. They also tried and failed to toss grenades into the tank. Somech then drove the tank out of the area, running over several abandoned vehicles and militants in the process, and stationed the tank next to the highway. Some fleeing partygoers and police officers used the tank for cover as they fled south along Route 232, while about 30 partygoers sheltered behind the tank and were defended two brothers, Daniel and Neria Sharabi, who were both IDF infantry veterans. The Sharabi brothers entered the tank, took a gun from a dead soldier and the tank's machine gun, and used them to fend off attackers, while also applying improvised tourniquets to the wounds of partygoers. They received advice from Yoni Skrisewsky, a commander of Daniel's reserve company, over WhatsApp.^[2][34]

The militants continued to advance along the highway, setting fire to abandoned cars. The tank and those using it as covered continued to withdraw south from the festival area. Surviving police and festival security guards kept fighting around the tank but could no longer defend the way to the festival grounds. The retreat of the tank, police, and security guards opened the way for the militants to reach the grounds. At 8:50 AM, the militants spotted partygoers fleeing east along the dirt path and opened fire. From 9:00 AM to 9:10 AM, they abducted seven hostages who had been hiding along the sides of the highway. At 9:15 AM, Major Avraham Hovelashvili, the deputy commander of the IDF's Caracal Battalion, was killed fighting near the festival grounds after encountering a group of militants while en route to the Sufa area to join his unit as it was engaged in combat there. Shortly afterwards, the commander of the militants instructed his forces to enter the festival grounds.^[2][35]

Dozens of Hamas fighters subsequently raided the festival grounds and established a command post. They killed nearly everyone they spotted and took others hostage.^[2] One attendee stated that after cutting the electricity, a group of approximately 50 Hamas gunmen arrived in vans and sprayed gunfire in all directions.^[8] The open terrain left few places to hide.^[22] Many attendees who hid in the trees were killed as militants methodically shot them.^[8] Others who hid in bushes and orchards managed to survive.^[8] The ambulance being used as cover by 20 people was hit by an RPG, killing 18.^[2] Many of the attendees attempted to call for help through phone calls and WhatsApp messages. However, it took hours for emergency responders and the military to reach the festival grounds.^[36]

A Hamas militant pointing his gun into a shelter where attendees of the festival were hiding

Independently verified drone footage from the site showed dozens of scorched, burnt cars and skid marks.^[37] Footage of the attack, posted on a Telegram channel, included graphic depictions of killing and hostage-taking.^[37][25] Upon their return to Gaza City, Hamas members paraded the body of a woman in the back of a pickup truck – Shani Louk, a 22-year-old German-Israeli national. In one of the first viral videos to emerge from the attack, her body is shown clad only in underwear, while the gunmen are exclaiming "Allahu Akbar"; they were surrounded by cheering residents, some of whom spat on the body.^[38][39][40]

The Hamas militants kidnapped festival participants; videos on social media showed them being seized. It was later determined that 44 people were abducted.^[2][41] The abducted partygoers were taken to the Gaza Strip,^[30] where some were filmed in Hamas propaganda videos.^[42] Relatives and friends of the missing searched for information about the missing.^[30][43] Those abducted by Hamas militants included 21-year-old French-Israeli woman Mia Schem^[5][44] and 25-year-old Israeli woman Noa Argamani.^[45] Three dual Brazilian-Israeli nationals who had attended the festival were also missing.^[46]

During the massacre, according to survivor and emergency responder testimony, Hamas militants raped women and men. According to survivor testimony released by Lahav 433, a young woman was gang raped by Hamas militants before being killed. The testimony was published in Hebrew- and English-language Israeli news outlets. According to Haaretz police reporter Josh Breiner, ZAKA emergency response personnel found naked women with injuries and their genitals mutilated, with others found bound and naked below their waists.^[11][47] The Israel Defense Forces have not verified the claims.^[48][49] In July 2024 an anonymous male survivor identified as "D." recounted his rape on October 7 to Israel's Channel 12, becoming the first victim to do so.^[50]

By 9:50 AM, the Hamas force had left the festival and returned to the highway. They would proceed to Be'eri after being instructed to do so by their commanders in Gaza and joined other militants carrying out the Be'eri massacre. At 10:20 AM, dozens of Palestinians unaffiliated with Hamas who entered Israel from Gaza, some of them armed, reached the festival grounds and began to loot the bodies of the dead. At the same time, fighting continued around the tank further south along Route 232. A senior reservist officer, Brigadier General Oren Solomon, who was fighting in the area, reported the presence of numerous militants, although he was unaware of the massacre at the festival. Soldiers from the Multidimensional Unit were sent to the area but never reached the festival grounds, as they became caught up in fighting at Re'im.^[2]

At 10:25 AM, the Hamas force that had carried out the massacre was spotted by an Israeli Air Force attack helicopter en route to Re'im as it withdrew in a convoy along Route 232. The helicopter crew, which was unaware of the festival's existence and had no contact with ground troops, decided not to open fire on the Hamas convoy, fearing potential friendly fire.^[2][51]

The first IDF reinforcements to arrive in the area, troops from the Givati Brigade's Shaked Battalion, arrived at 11:35 AM after being sent there from the West Bank by the commander of the Ephraim Regional Brigade. One of the partygoers was an off-duty soldier with the Ephraim Brigade and had called in for help. The soldiers advanced into the festival grounds at 11:50 AM and killed two attackers. Over the following hour, the soldiers, joined by operators of the Israel Prison Service's Metzada Unit, killed some 15 attackers in the Nova festival area. Some were from the original wave of militants who had perpetrated the massacre and had stayed behind while others were from the second wave of infiltrators. Several of the attackers were also taken alive. Additional forces reached the area at 1:00 PM, though by this time fighting had ceased. They rescued the survivors and treated the wounded. At 3:00 PM, the site was declared cleared of militants.^[2]

Casualties

Footage of bodycam of Israeli elite unit clearing the Nova music festival area on 7 October.

Photographs from the aftermath of the attack show dozens of bodies on the festival grounds, including a badly burned body bound by cable ties.^[52] ZAKA, Israel's volunteer community emergency response group, reported retrieving at least 260 bodies from the party grounds.^[22][53][54] The death toll was expected to rise, as other paramedic organisations also responded to the scene.^[54] On 17 November, the figure was announced as 364 dead, including 17 police officers, and 40 abducted.^[26][3]

In the IDF investigation of the event, released in April 2025, the final figure was announced as 378 dead, of whom 344 were civilians. Of the 34 security personnel, 16 were soldiers, including 12 who were attending the party while off duty, another 16 were police officers, 15 of whom were killed fighting, and 2 were Shin Bet agents. The figure of those taken hostage was announced at 44. Of the victims, 171 were killed and 16 were abducted at the festival grounds and in an adjacent section of the highway. The rest were killed or abducted across the Gaza envelope, in an area spanning some 52 kilometers, as they tried to flee.^[2]

One of those killed was Nathanel Young, a British man serving in the Israeli military.^[55] Lior Asulin, a retired football striker who had played for Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club, was also among those killed in the massacre.^[56] Journalists Shai Regev and Ayelet Arnin, who worked for the newspaper Maariv and public broadcaster Kan respectively, were also killed in the attack.^[57][58] The event's organisers, twins Osher Vaknin and Michael Vaknin, were killed in the attack as well.^[59][60]

Danielle Waldman, the youngest daughter of Israeli billionaire businessman Eyal Waldman, and her boyfriend Noam Shai were killed during the massacre. When Waldman received word that Danielle was missing, he flew back to Israel from Indonesia and tracked her location via her Apple Watch. Her body was found on 9 October.^[61]

Suhaib Abu Amer Razeem

Main article: Be'eri massacre § Hostage stand-off

Suhaib Abu Amer Razeem was kidnapped from the music festival to nearby Be'eri where he was used as a translator at a hostage standoff. Razeem did not survive the standoff.

Suhaib Abu Amer Razeem, a 22-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem, was at the site of the music festival, working as a bus driver transporting music festival attendees. When Hamas militants encountered him, they interrogated him to determine his nationality and why he was present at the site. While at least one of the militants proposed to let him go, the militants ultimately decided to kidnap Razeem and used him as a translator in a hostage stand-off at kibbutz Be'eri nearby. Razeem did not survive the stand-off, and his body was not discovered for 12 days. It is still not known whether he was executed by Hamas or died by IDF gunfire.^[62][63]

Razeem's brother claimed that when he approached authorities about his missing brother, he encountered initial skepticism, with an officer allegedly telling him "go to Hamas and ask them to bring back your brother."^[62]

Investigations

Pre-planning by Hamas

According to reports published on 17 November, Israeli police and security authorities concluded based on interrogations of detained Palestinians that Hamas most likely did not know about the festival beforehand but came across it by chance and decided to seize the opportunity to attack it.^[3] Critics such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights Israel stated that any alleged confessions extracted under torture, should not be accepted as credible evidence, and called on the Israeli government to cease their production and publication.^[64][65] Senior officials speculated that Hamas may have become aware of the event through drones or individuals parachuting, and subsequently re-directed their forces to the location using their communication system.^[66] Some of the evidence cited included Hamas militants having entered the site from a direction opposite the Gaza border, and that the festival was originally approved for only two days, and was not approved for a third day (which was the day of the massacre) until the day before the festival began.^[26] Maps of the target locations recovered from Hamas militants also did not include the festival location.^[66]

Friendly fire

Main article: Friendly fire during the Israel–Hamas war

According to Haaretz journalist Josh Breiner, a police source said that a police investigation indicated an IDF helicopter which had fired on Hamas militants "apparently also hit some festival participants".^[67][68] A statement by the Israeli police said their investigation focused on police activity and not IDF activity, and thus did not provide any indication of civilian harm caused by the IDF. The police statement also said that "elements of the Haaretz article were taken widely out of context on social media and used to blame Israel for hundreds of civilian deaths on Oct 7, none of which has any basis in fact and in extensive reporting about the massacre."^[69][67]

In September 2024 Australia's ABC News followed up on Yaniv Kubovich's July 7 article in Ha'aretz that the Hannibal Directive was "apparently applied", with "panicked" aircrews firing on vehicles containing hostages. ABC News asked the IDF about this issue, but the IDF did not answer ABC's questions, saying that "questions of this kind will be looked into at a later stage".^[70][71]

In the aftermath of the attack, a widely disseminated video purported to show leaked footage of an IDF helicopter shooting at civilians during the Re'im festival. However, according to France 24, the footage was actually part of a compilation showing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on October 9.^[72]

Israeli foreknowledge and response time

According to Haaretz, Israel's domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet and IDF military commanders discussed a possible threat to the festival just hours before the attack. However, no warnings were given to the festival's organisers.^[73][74]

According to an investigation by journalist Avi Amit [he] broadcast on KAN News in September 2024, Israeli Air Force commander Tomer Bar was unaware of the massacre for 10 hours. When the massacre started, the Israeli Air Force was operating at its lowest state of readiness, with only two fighter jets and two helicopters available for short notice takeoff and only one drone was flying over Gaza. The fighter jets that were scrambled were directed to protect national strategic assets such as the platform at the Leviathan gas field gas platform for hours.^[75]

Investigations by foreign authorities

As of 14 October 2023, German authorities were aware of eight of its nationals having been taken as hostage in the overall events of 7 October 2023, including the case of Shani Louk,^[76] which gained great public interest.^[77][78] They opened a criminal probe against unknown Hamas members to investigate "belonging to a foreign terrorist group, hostage-taking and murder".^{[79][77][80][81]}

Palestinian statements

See also: Israel–Hamas war and Timeline of the Gaza war

Hamas initially denied the occurrence of the massacre and the killing of civilians.^[82] It later claimed that forces under Hamas never targeted civilians but that the massacre may have been carried out by independent groups of Gazan civilians after Hamas had defeated the Israeli forces in the region.^[83]

On 19 November, the Palestinian Authority (PA) denied that Hamas conducted the massacre in a statement sent to foreign ministries worldwide and to the United Nations. The PA stated that Israeli helicopters bombed civilians after the Hannibal Directive was activated, though the directive is claimed by Israel to have been canceled in 2016.^[84][85] The U.S. National Security Council spokesman says that the PA later said this was not its official position.^[86]

Aftermath

Eran Litman, the father of Oriya Litman who was killed by Hamas at Re'im music festival massacre, speaks at an event in Haifa

In response to this massacre, as well as other massacres and attacks in what Hamas called "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood", Israel formally declared war on Hamas and initiated its counteroffensive, named "Operation Swords of Iron".

Family members of the victims of the festival and the Psyduck festival together formed the Party Youth Forum to demand the establishment of a third-party investigation committee, which would potentially identify any negligence leading up to the 7 October attacks.^[87] On 1 January 2024, 42 survivors of the massacre filed a lawsuit seeking 200 million NIS in damages from the IDF, Shin Bet and the Israel Police.^[88][89]

Photo of Zur Saidi who was killed at the Nova Music Festival on 7 October 2023

Shortly after the attack, spaces were created to allow survivors and victims' families to reflect and heal from the attack, with a variety of treatments provided to help them process the mental trauma.^[90] Items recovered from the festivals grounds that were not claimed or identified, were brought to another similar event in the Sdot Yam kibbutz.^[91][92]

In late January 2024, a memorial on the site had been opened to tourists, family, and friends of victims to learn about the attack, the victims, and survivors and pay tribute to them.^[93] That same month, the families of victims planted trees inside the area of the festival to commemorate the deceased victims.^[94]

During a State Audit Commission on the treatment of survivors of the 7 October attacks at the Knesset in April 2024, a survivor spoke out about the psychological damage the attack had caused. He indicated that many survivors were forcibly hospitalized due to psychological state, could not get out of bed, and that there had been some 50 suicides by survivors between October 2023 and April 2024. The Israeli Ministry of Health has reported that they cannot confirm the claim of suicides made by the survivor.^[95]

On 20 October 2024, Nova massacre survivor Shirel Golan committed suicide on her 22nd birthday after suffering PTSD symptoms since the event.^[96]

Compensation for survivors

The National Insurance Institute formally recognised the trauma and damage suffered by the survivors of the massacre. Survivors can submit claims for recognition as victims of work-related injuries and as casualties of hostile actions. Individuals are eligible for various privileges, including financial aid, medical and psychological assistance, legal representation, and compensation for any property losses or damages.^[97][98]

Hostages taken from the music festival

A total of 44 hostages were taken from the music festival. As of 22 February 2025^[update], 13 of the hostages are still being held captive. Israel has declared that five of the 13 hostages are dead with their bodies held captive: Inbar Haiman, Uriel Baruch, Jonathan Samerano, Guy Iluz and Idan Shtivi.^{[99][100][101][102][103]} Iluz is known to have been abducted alive, with a released hostage telling that she was treated next to him in a Gaza hospital.^[104]

Rescue operations

Further information: 2024 Nuseirat rescue operation

The Yamam, Shin Bet and Israel Defense Forces carried out a rescue operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp on 8 June 2024 in which they successfully rescued four hostages taken from the Nova music festival:^[105][106]

• Noa Argamani
• Shlomi Ziv
• Almog Meir Jan
• Andrey Kozlov

The operation was later renamed Operation Arnon, in honor of Arnon Zamora [he], a Yamam officer who was killed in the line of duty during the operation.^[107]

Recovery operations

The Israel Defense Forces recovered the bodies of 13 people who were kidnapped from the music festival to Gaza. Unless otherwise noted, the victims are believed to have been murdered during the kidnapping, with the bodies taken hostage.

• Ofir Tsarfati's body was recovered December 1, 2023.^[108][d]
• Eden Zacharia's body was recovered December 12, 2023. Her exact date of death is unknown. She is only known to have been kidnapped with "wounds in the upper body." The son of former IDF Chief of Staff, Gadi Eizenkot, died while taking part in the recovery operation.^[110]
• Elia Toledano's body was recovered December 15, 2023^[111]
• Amit Buskila's body was recovered May 17, 2024^[112]
• Itzhak Gelerenter's body was recovered May 17, 2024^[112]
• Shani Louk's body was recovered May 17, 2024^[112]
• The body of Louk's boyfriend, Orión Hernandez Radoux, a French-Mexican national, was recovered May 24, 2024.^[113] His body was flown to Mexico for burial.^[114]
• Hanan Yablonka's body was recovered May 24, 2024^[115]
• Hersh Goldberg-Polin's body was recovered August 31, 2024. He is believed to have been executed by Hamas from "close range" 2–3 days earlier.^[116][117]
• Eden Yerushalmi's body was recovered August 31, 2024. She is believed to have been executed by Hamas from "close range" 2–3 days earlier.^[116][117]
• Alexander Lobanov's body was recovered August 31, 2024. He is believed to have been executed by Hamas from "close range" 2–3 days earlier.^[116][117]
• Almog Sarusi's body was recovered August 31, 2024. He is believed to have been executed by Hamas from "close range" 2–3 days earlier.^[116][117]
• Ori Danino's^[e] body was recovered August 31, 2024. He is believed to have been executed by Hamas from "close range" 2–3 days earlier.^[116][117]

Released hostages

Hamas released ten of the 44 people that were taken hostage from the music festival:

• Maya Regev was released on November 25, 2023. Regev was released walking on crutches.^[119] She suffered a gunshot wound to the foot, and did not get discharged from the hospital until June 10, 2024.^[120]
• Maya's brother, Itay Regev, was released November 29, 2023.^[121]
• Roni Krivoi was released November 26, 2023. Krivoi is a Russian citizen, and his release was a gesture towards Vladimir Putin^[122]
• Moran Stella Yanai was released November 29, 2023.^[123]
• Mia Schem was released November 30, 2023.^[124]
• Romi Gonen was released January 19, 2025.^[125]
• Or Levy was released February 8, 2025.^[126]
• Omer Wenkert was released on February 22, 2025.^[127]
• Eliya Cohen was released on February 22, 2025.^[127]
• Omer Shem-Tov was released on February 22, 2025.^[127]

Depiction in media

On October 9, two days after the massacre, Irish rock band U2 paid tribute to the victims during a Las Vegas concert by performing "Pride (In the Name of Love)" with modified lyrics to reference the massacre.^[128][129] Five Israeli DJs, including Skazi, performed a set during a memorial on 28 November 2023, at the site of the festival.^[130] Film makers Reinhardt Beetz, Duki Dror and Danna Stern made a documentary titled Supernova: The Music Festival Massacre.^[131][132]

On December 6, a documentary titled #Nova was aired on Yes Docu, recreating the events of the massacre. The documentary uses videos taken on site, phone call recordings and WhatsApp conversations.^[133][134] As a precedent, Yes announced that it would allow any television channel and broadcaster to show the film for free, and also uploaded the full film to its official YouTube channel.^{[135][136][137]}

Unclaimed items left on the festival grounds that were collected and displayed as part of the 06:29 performance

Supernova: Music Festival Massacre is another documentary about the massacre. Created by Yossi Bloch, Noam Pinchas, and Duki Dror, the documentary narrates the experiences of survivors through interviews and real-time video footage. It also incorporates a limited amount of video captured by the perpetrators. It has been acquired by broadcasters in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, and other countries worldwide.^[138][139]

On 5 February 2024, the 66th Annual Grammy Awards paid tribute to the victims of the massacre. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. led the tribute, delivering eulogies, while a string quartet composed of musicians from Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab backgrounds provided musical accompaniment.^[140]

On 26 September 2024, the BBC, Paramount+ and Israel's (Hot) broadcast a documentary titled We Will Dance Again about the festival massacre.^{[141][142][143]}

Tributes

During the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Israeli sailing pair Nitai Hasson [he] and Noa Lasry [he] named their dingy "Nova" as a tribute to the victims of the massacre.^[144]

Memorials

The massacre at the music festival has been memorialized in several different ways.

• The Nova Festival Victims Memorial at the site where the music festival took place
• The Car Wall in Tkuma where victims' burned and damaged cars have been gathered^[145]
• A traveling exhibition (see below)

Traveling exhibition

In December 2023, activists, including producers of the festival, organised the "6:29" exhibition at Expo Tel Aviv, which recreated the massacre site in detail. It was one of the first physical memorials of the 7 October attacks. The exhibit, named for the minute the music at the festival ceased in response to sirens of incoming rockets, included a reconstructed dance floor, incinerated cars, bullet-ridden portable toilets, piles of personal items, and tributes to the victims.^[146][147] Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke at opening of the exhibition on December 6.^[148] The exhibition lasted for 10 weeks.^[149]

The exhibition was brought to the United States by Scooter Braun, Joe Teplow, and Josh Kadden.^[149]

The "Nova Music Festival exhibition" opened in New York City on April 21.^[150] The exhibition, dedicated to the survivors of the massacre, features tents, blankets, personal objects, and mobile phones displaying videos recorded during the attack.^[151] On 10 June 2024, anti-Israel protesters organized by the Within Our Lifetime organization arrived at the exhibition, setting off flares, flying flags of Hamas and Hezbollah, and chanting slogans such as "Long live October 7".^[152] Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of the organization, characterized the exhibition as "propaganda used to justify the genocide in Palestine", and called the music festival "a rave next to a concentration camp."^[153] The protest was condemned by local and national politicians, including New York City mayor Eric Adams and White House spokesperson Andrew Bates.^[154] Originally planned to only stay open in New York until May 23, the exhibition was extended until June 22.^[150][155] During its time in New York, the exhibition attracted 113,000 visitors including New York Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul.^[149][153]

After leaving New York, the exhibition came to Culver City, a suburb of Los Angeles, opening on August 17. The exhibition was scheduled to last until mid-October, but was extended to November 3.^[156][157] From Los Angeles, the exhibition moved to Miami, where it opened on December 18, 2024, and is expected to last until February 16, 2025.^[158][159] On January 16, 2025, Sara Netanyahu and Noa Argamani visited the exhibition in Miami. Argamani recounted her experience as a hostage held by Hamas in Gaza.^[160] A month later, Argamani made a second public appearance at the exhibition, this time alongside special envoy Steve Witkoff who pledged to continue working for the release of all the hostages still held by Hamas.^[161]

• 
  A montage of photos of all the victims of the Nova music festival massacre. The montage is located at the Nova Festival Victims Memorial.
• 
  Abandoned and damaged cars parked at the festival (12 October). Most of the vehicles ultimately ended up at The Car Wall in Tkuma.
• 
  The original toilets from the festival, which were used in the commemorative performance 06:29

See also

• Crime portal

• Outline of the Gaza war
• Battle of Re'im, a 2023 Hamas attack on an Israeli military base as part of the same offensive
• Psyduck music festival massacre
• Killing of Shani Louk
• Dolphinarium discotheque massacre, a 2001 Hamas attack in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv
• Coastal Road massacre
• List of massacres in Israel
• List of terrorist incidents in 2023
• Palestinian political violence
• Moshe Dayan's eulogy for Ro'i Rothberg

Notes

1. Excludes those who were also taken hostage. One was kidnapped to nearby Kibbutz Be'eri where he was killed in a hostage standoff (see § Suhaib Abu Amer Razeem for additional details), with the rest either kidnapped to Gaza alive and subsequently killed in captivity, or killed and their bodies being abjucted to Gaza. As of 7 October 2024, the bodies of 13 hostages were recovered from Gaza, and the IDF has declared five additional hostages as dead with their bodies being held captive in Gaza (see §Hostages taken from the music festival for additional details).
2. Excludes Suhaib Abu Amer Razeem who was kidnapped to Be'eri and was killed in a hostage standoff there.
3. After the attack, relatives searching for missing loved ones said more than one thousand were at the event at the time of the attack.^[22] Some festival attendees estimated 3,000–4,000 people.^[22] An emergency medic who responded to the massacre at the festival placed attendance at 3,000.^[8]
4. Eight months after the recovery of Tsarfati's body, Hamas released a photo of his body purporting the photo to be evidence of their claim that one of their operatives assigned to guard Israeli hostages had recently killed a hostage in an act of revenge.^[109]
5. Danino managed to escape the music festival, but chose to go back to the scene in order to help rescue others, at which time he was taken hostage. His actions were credited with saving the lives of an unspecified number of people.^[118]