| Nova music festival massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of theOctober 7 attacks | |
 A December 2023 photo of the site of the massacre, after it was turned intoa memorial | |
 | |
| Location | Eshkol Regional Council, Israel |
| Coordinates | 31°23′52″N34°28′18″E / 31.39778°N 34.47167°E /31.39778; 34.47167 |
| Date | 7 October 2023; 2 years ago (2023-10-07) Startingc. 7 a.m. (UTC+3) |
| Target | Israelis |
Attack type | Mass shooting,hostage-taking |
| Weapons | Firearms includingAK-typeassault rifles,RPGs,hand grenades[5] |
| Deaths | 378 Israelis[a][3]
|
| Victims | 44 kidnapped and held hostage[3][4]
|
| Perpetrator | Over 100 operatives of theAl-Qassam Brigades along with Palestinian civilian mobs[3][6] |
On 7 October 2023, theal-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of thePalestinian nationalistIslamist political organizationHamas, initiated asudden attack onIsrael from theGaza Strip. As part of the attack, 378 people (344 civilians and 34 security personnel) were killed and many more wounded at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, an open-airmusic festival during theJewish holiday ofShemini Atzeret nearkibbutzRe'im. Hamas also took44 people hostage, and men and women were reportedly subject tosexual and gender-based violence. Some 20 of the attackers were also killed by Israeli security forces in the area of the festival.[3][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
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 thekibbutzim andmoshavim ofNetiv HaAsara,Be'eri,Kfar Aza,Nir Oz andHolit.[14]
At 6:30 a.m., which was around sunrise,rockets were noticed in the sky.[15][5] Around 7:00 a.m., a siren warned of an incoming rocket attack, prompting festivalgoers to flee.[16] Subsequently, armed militants, dressed in military attire and using motorcycles, trucks andpowered 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 killed some wounded individuals at point-blank range as they crouched on the ground.[17][18]
On 13 October 2025, the last living hostage was released, and two days later the body of the last hostage was returned. The massacre at the festival was the largestterror attack inIsrael's history,[5][19][18] and the worst Israeli civilian massacre ever.[20]
Supernova Sukkot Gathering was a weekend-long outdoortrance music festival that began on 6 October 2023[21][22] and was produced by an organizer called Nova[23][12] (also referred to as Tribe of Nova).[24] It was the Israeli edition (pre-festival event) of Universo Paralello, apsychedelic trance festival started 23 years earlier inBahia, Brazil.[22] It took place in the westernNegev desert,[12] approximately 5 km (3.1 mi) from theGaza–Israel barrier, near kibbutzRe'im.[10][23] The line-up included artists well known in the psychedelic trance scene, such asAstral Projection andMan with No Name.[22] The organizers switched to the site only two days before, after the original location in southern Israel did not work out.[25] Scheduled to coincide with Jewish holidays: thefinal day of Sukkot (6 October) andSimchat Torah (7 October),[10] therave was billed as a celebration of "friends, love and infinite freedom".[23] The festival site had three stages, a camping zone, and an area with a bar and food.[10] Attendees described the crowd as mostly consisting of Israelis of ages 20–40 from across the country.[12] Attendance was reported to be 3,500 but figures vary.[26][b] Security guards and police were present at the festival.[12][25]
The festival was one of the first targets of Hamas's surprise attack against Israel in the early morning hours of 7 October 2023.[23] Israeli security services investigations have found it unlikely that Hamas had advance 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.[28] The massacre was carried out by the 1st and 3rd companies of Hamas's Nuseirat Battalion. Their original target was the city ofNetivot, 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 kibbutzBe'eri in perpetrating theBe'eri massacre.[29][30]
The attack opened with a rocket barrage starting at about 6:30 a.m. that provided cover for infiltration. Arocket siren sounded in the area.[12] 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 viamotorized paragliders.[31][32] At 6:35 a.m., the senior police commander on duty at the festival, Deputy Superintendent Nivi Ohana of theOfakim 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 theYasam riot control unit. Ohana and members of the production team called on the partygoers to disperse through loudspeakers. By 7:00 a.m., Ohana had left to defend his city, which wasalso under attack. Partygoers began fleeing as the police directed them to evacuate alongRoute 232. At 7:13 a.m., theHome Front Command officer at the Northern Brigade of theGaza 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.[3][29][33]
Police directing traffic out of the area noticed that many partygoers were returning after coming under fire. Those who fled north were fired at nearAlumim,Be'eri, andSa'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 towardPatish, 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.[3] Public roadside bomb shelters which were used as cover and subsequently became death traps as militants attacked them became known as theDeath 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.[34]
By 8:00 a.m., 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 fromNuseirat, heading forNetivot. 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 nearShokeda 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 sheltering there, including partygoers who fled the festival.[3][35]
At 8:12 a.m., the militants spotted a police roadblock near the festival and an exchange of fire began as the police officers, armed only with pistols, engaged. At 8:14 a.m., aRPG 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.[3]
At 8:20 a.m., 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. 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 by 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, overWhatsApp.[3][36]
The militants continued to advance along the highway, setting fire to abandoned cars. The tank and those using it as cover 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 a.m., the militants spotted partygoers fleeing east along the dirt path and opened fire. From 9:00 a.m. to 9:10 a.m., they abducted seven hostages who had been hiding along the sides of the highway. At 9:15 a.m., Major Avraham Hovelashvili, deputy commander of the IDF'sCaracal Battalion, was killed near the festival grounds after encountering a group of militants while en route to theSufa area to join his unit. Shortly afterwards, the commander of the militants instructed his forces to enter the festival grounds.[3][37]
Dozens of Hamas fighters subsequently raided the festival grounds and established a command post. The militants killed most of the civilians they encountered and took others hostage.[3] One attendee stated that after cutting the electricity, a group of approximately 50 Hamas gunmen arrived in vans and sprayed gunfire in all directions.[10] The open terrain left few places to hide.[23] Many attendees who hid in the trees were killed as militants methodically shot them.[10] Others who hid in bushes andorchards managed to survive.[10] The ambulance being used as cover by 20 people was hit by an RPG, killing 18.[3] 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.[38]
Independently verified drone footage from the site showed dozens of scorched, burnt cars andskid marks.[39] Footage of the attack, posted on aTelegram channel, included graphic depictions of killing and hostage-taking.[39][26] Upon their return toGaza 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.[40][41][42]
The Hamas militantskidnapped festival participants; videos on social media showed them being seized. It was later determined that 44 people were abducted.[3][43] The abducted partygoers were taken to the Gaza Strip,[32] where some were filmed in Hamas propaganda videos.[44] Relatives and friends of the missing searched for information about the missing.[32][45] Those abducted included 21-year-old French-Israeli womanMia Schem[7][46] and 25-year-old Israeli womanNoa Argamani.[47] Three dual Brazilian-Israeli nationals who had attended the festival were also missing.[48]
During the massacre, according to survivor and emergency responder testimony,Hamas militants raped women and men. According to survivor testimony released byLahav 433, a young woman was gang raped before being killed. The testimony was published in Hebrew- and English-language Israeli news outlets. According toHaaretz 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.[13] In July 2024, an anonymous male survivor identified as "D." recounted his rape on October 7 to Israel'sChannel 12, becoming the first victim to do so.[49]
By 9:50 a.m., the Hamas force had left the festival grounds and returned to the highway. They proceeded to Be'eri on orders of their commanders in Gaza and joined other militants carrying out theBe'eri massacre. At 10:20 a.m., dozens of Gazans unaffiliated with Hamas, 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 theMultidimensional Unit were sent to the area but never reached the festival grounds, as they became caught up in fighting at Re'im.[3]
At 10:25 a.m., the Hamas force that had carried out the massacre was spotted by anIsraeli Air Force attack helicopter en route toRe'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 potentialfriendly fire.[3][35]
The first IDF reinforcements to arrive in the area, troops from theGivati Brigade's Shaked Battalion, arrived at 11:35 a.m. after being sent there from theWest 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 a.m. and killed two attackers. Over the following hour, the soldiers, joined by operators of theIsrael Prison Service'sMetzada 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 p.m., though by this time fighting had ceased. They rescued the survivors and treated the wounded. At 3:00 p.m., the site was declared cleared of militants.[3]
Photographs from the aftermath of the attack show dozens of bodies on the festival grounds, including a badly burned body bound by cable ties.[50] ZAKA, Israel's volunteer community emergency response group, reported retrieving at least 260 bodies from the party grounds.[23][51][52] The death toll was expected to rise, as other paramedic organisations also responded to the scene.[52] On 17 November, the figure was announced as 364 dead, including 17 police officers, and 40 abducted.[28][4]
In the IDF investigation, 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 wereShin 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.[3]
One of those killed was Nathanel Young, a British man serving in the Israeli military.[53]Lior Asulin, a retiredfootball striker who had played forHapoel Tel Aviv Football Club, was also among those killed in the massacre.[54] Journalists Shai Regev and Ayelet Arnin, who worked for the newspaperMaariv and public broadcasterKan respectively, were also killed in the attack.[55][56] The event's organisers, twins Osher Vaknin and Michael Vaknin, were killed in the attack as well.[57][58]
Danielle Waldman, the youngest daughter of Israeli billionaire businessmanEyal 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 herApple Watch. Her body was found on 9 October.[59]
According to reports published on 17 November,Israeli police and security authorities concluded based oninterrogations 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.[4][c]Senior officials speculated that Hamas may have become aware of the event through drones and/or from information relayed by their operatives who wereparagliding into Israeli territory, and subsequently re-directed their forces to the location using their communication system.[62] 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.[28] Maps of the target locations recovered from Hamas militants also did not include the festival location.[62]
According toHaaretz 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".[63][64] A statement by the Israeli police said their investigation focused on police activity and not IDF activity, and that statements in theHaaretz article had been used out of context on social media to blame Israel for civilian deaths, none of which had any basis in fact.[65][63]
In September 2024Australia's ABC News followed up on Yaniv Kubovich's July 7 article inHa'aretz that theHannibal 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".[66][67]
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 toFrance 24, the footage was actually part of a compilation showing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on October 9.[68]
According toHaaretz, Israel's domestic intelligence agencyShin 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.[69][70]
According to an investigation by journalistAvi Amit [he] broadcast onKan News in September 2024,Israeli Air Force commanderTomer Bar was unaware of the massacre for 10 hours. When the massacre started, theIsraeli 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 theLeviathan gas field gas platform for hours.[71]
The official IDF investigation of the massacre, released in April 2025, described in detail the approval process the party went through with authorities and the considerations military officials had regarding the festival prior to the attack. The festival had been pre-approved by police and military authorities: approval from theIsrael Defense Forces andIsrael Police is required for any large-scale civilian events taking place near Israel's borders. According to the probe, a production company behind the festival sent a request to the police to hold an event, the "Unity" festival, in the area, between October 5–6 on September 6. Police authorized the event on September 20 without initially consulting the IDF. The Northern Brigade of the IDF'sGaza Division, responsible for the defense of the area, received a request the following day, and the request was handled by aHome Front Command officer at the brigade. On September 29, the brigade commander, Colonel Haim Cohen, approved the event, judging that the deployment of air defenses in the area could adequately protect the festival. On October 2, the Home Front Command officer and an assistant to the head of the production company's security team toured the area of the festival, and during the tour a request was made to extend the event by 24 hours to enable the Nova festival to take place using the same equipment and infrastructure.[3]
Initially, military officials were reluctant to allow the event to continue for 24 hours, as fewer troops would be deployed there over theSimchat Torah holiday weekend. On October 4, further discussions were held between IDF officials at the Gaza Division's Northern Brigade andSouthern Command. Ultimately, a decision was made to approve the Nova festival, which would run from October 6 to October 7. On October 5, the festival was mentioned by the chief of operations at the Northern Brigade during a discussion. The deputy commander of the 13th Battalion of theGolani Brigade, the unit responsible for the defense of the area at the time, was present at the meeting but did not pass the information down to the soldiers on the ground. The Home Front Command officer carried out another tour of the area as the Unity festival began on October 5, and after it ended he carried out another tour of the site with the chief of operations of the Northern Brigade before the Nova festival began.[3]
The investigation found that the IDF held no assessment for the event and no adjustments were made to defenses in the area. Soldiers deployed along the Gaza border were unaware of the event and the IDF had no military representative at the site. On the night of October 6–7, when the IDF detected and ultimately misinterpreted signs of Hamas activity and military officials held discussions on the matter, the Nova festival was not brought up and no decisions were made regarding the event.[3]
According to the investigation, while the massacre was taking place information did not reach IDF officials in time. At the time the IDF had not put together an accurate picture of what was happening and military officials wrongly believed that the party had been fully evacuated while there were still hundreds of people on the site. There was also little to no coordination between the military and police in that area during the Hamas attack.[3]
Within three days of theOctober 7 attack, theGerman Public Prosecutor General announced an investigation into the kidnapping and murder of German victims of the attack, which included some victims from the Nova Music Festival.[72][73][74][69] Over two dozen of the 251hostages taken into Gaza on October 7, 2023 were either dual Israeli-German citizens or were eligible to receive a German citizenship if they were descendants of German citizens (applications were fast-tracked for eligible applicants who were victims of the attack).[75] Dual Israeli-German citizens who were kidnapped and/or murdered at the Nova Music Festival includedShani Louk,[76] Rom Braslavski, and Alon Ohel.[75]
Hamas initially denied the occurrence of the massacre and the killing of civilians.[77] 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.[78]
On 19 November, thePalestinian 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 theHannibal Directive was activated, though the directive is claimed by Israel to have been canceled in 2016.[79][80] The U.S. National Security Council spokesman says that the PA later said this was not its official position.[81]
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In response to this massacre, as well as other massacres and attacks in what Hamas called "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood", Israel formallydeclared war on Hamas and initiated theGaza war (named "Operation Swords of Iron").
Family members of the victims of the festival and thePsyduck 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.[82] 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.[83][84]
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.[85] Items recovered from the festivals grounds that were not claimed or identified, were brought to another similar event in theSdot Yam kibbutz.[86][87]
In late January 2024, amemorial on the site was opened to tourists, family, and friends of victims to learn about the attack, the victims, and survivors and pay tribute to them.[88] That same month, the families of victims planted trees inside the area of the festival to commemorate the deceased victims.[89]
During a State Audit Commission on the treatment of survivors of the 7 October attacks at theKnesset 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. TheIsraeli Ministry of Health stated it could not confirm the claim of suicides made by the survivor.[90]
On 20 October 2024, Shirel Golan, a survivor of the massacre, committed suicide on her 22nd birthday after suffering from PTSD symptoms since the event.[1] Roei Shalev, a survivor who was injured and lost his partner and friend during the massacre, also committed suicide on 10 October 2025.[2]
SingerYuval Raphael, another survivor of the massacre, went on to representIsrael in theEurovision Song Contest 2025, where she finished in second place.[91][92]
TheNational 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.[93][94]
Yonatan Samerano attended the festival and escaped to nearbyBe'eri, where he was murdered, and his body was abducted to Gaza.[95][d] In December 2024, after the IDF revealed that Samerano's body was abducted to Gaza by Faisal Ali Mussalem al-Naami, anUNRWA employee, Samerano's parents filed a lawsuit against UNRWA, as well as against itsCommissioners-general,Philippe Lazzarini. The lawsuit was filed with the help ofNGOShurat HaDin.[96]
A total of 44 hostages were taken from the music festival, including Americans.[97] The last living hostage was released on 13 October 2025, and two days later the body of the last hostage was returned.[98]
TheYamam,Shin Bet andIsrael Defense Forces carried out a rescue operation in theNuseirat refugee camp on 8 June 2024 in which they successfully rescued four hostages taken from the Nova music festival:[99][100]
The operation was later renamed Operation Arnon, in honor ofArnon Zamora [he], aYamam officer who was killed in the line of duty during the operation.[101]
TheIsrael Defense Forces recovered the bodies of 15 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.
Hamas released 21 of the 44 people who were taken hostage from the music festival:
Hamas returned three bodies following theGaza peace plan going into effect.
Suhaib Abu Amer Razeem, a 22-year-old Palestinian fromEast 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 ethnicity and why he was present at the site. While at least one of the militants proposed to let him go due to him being anArab, the militants ultimately decided to kidnap Razeem and used him as a translator ina hostage stand-off at kibbutz Be'eri nearby. Using the hostages ashuman shields, Hamas threatened to execute the hostages if the IDF were to engage in battle. When the stand-off ended, Razeem was one of the 14 out of the 15 hostages who did not survive. Rezeem's body was not discovered for 12 days, and it is still not known whether he was killed by the Hamas hostage takers or died by IDF gunfire. He was subsequently buried in Jerusalem.[132][133]
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."[132]
Another hostage in the Be'eri hostage standoff, Yasmin Porat who was one of only two hostages to have survived the standoff, had escaped from the Nova Music Festival toBe'eri, prior to being taken hostage in Be'eri. She is not counted as one of the victims who were kidnapped and taken hostage from the music festival since she managed to escape it.[134]
On 6 December, a documentary titled#Nova was aired onYes Docu, recreating the events of the massacre. The documentary uses videos taken on site, phone call recordings and WhatsApp conversations.[135][136] 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.[137][138][139]
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.[140][141]
On 26 September 2024, theBBC,Paramount+ and Israel's (Hot) broadcast a documentary titledWe Will Dance Again about the festival massacre.[142][143][144]
On 9 October, two days after the massacre, Irish rock bandU2 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.[145][146] Five Israeli DJs, includingSkazi, performed a set during a memorial on 28 November 2023, at the site of the festival.[147] Film makers Reinhardt Beetz,Duki Dror andDanna Stern made a documentary titledSupernova: The Music Festival Massacre.[148][149]
On 5 February 2024, the66th Annual Grammy Awards paid tribute to the victims of the massacre.Recording Academy CEOHarvey Mason Jr. led the tribute, delivering eulogies, while a string quartet composed of musicians from Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab backgrounds provided musical accompaniment.[150]
During the2024 Paris Olympics, the Israeli sailing pairNitai Hasson [he] andNoa Lasry [he] named theirdinghy "Nova" as a tribute to the victims of the massacre.[151]
On 18 November 2024, during theADL-organized "In Concert Against Hate" inWashington, D.C.,Sia dedicated a slow rendition of "Titanium" in honor of the survivors of the massacre.[152][153]
In October 2025, reports surfaced that a new high-end restaurant was in the final stages before its grand opening. The restaurant's location along the beach inKhan Yunis would be named "Nova Café". The name has been criticized for a glorification of the massacre.[154]
The massacre at the music festival has been memorialized in several different ways.
In December 2023, activists, including producers of the festival, organised the "6:29" exhibition atExpo 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.[156][157]Israeli PresidentIsaac Herzog spoke at opening of the exhibition on December 6.[158] The exhibition lasted for 10 weeks.[159]
The exhibition was brought to the United States byScooter Braun, Joe Teplow, and Josh Kadden.[159]
The "Nova Music Festival exhibition" opened inNew York City on April 21.[160] The exhibition, dedicated to the survivors of the massacre, features tents, blankets, personal objects, and mobile phones displaying videos recorded during the attack.[161] On 10 June 2024, anti-Israel protesters organized by theWithin 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".[162]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."[163] The protest was condemned by local and national politicians, includingNew York City mayorEric Adams and White House spokespersonAndrew Bates.[164] Originally planned to only stay open in New York until May 23, the exhibition was extended until June 22.[160][165] During its time in New York, the exhibition attracted 113,000 visitors includingNew York MayorEric Adams andNew York GovernorKathy Hochul.[159][163]
After leaving New York, the exhibition came toCulver City, a suburb ofLos Angeles, opening on August 17. The exhibition was scheduled to last until mid-October, but was extended to November 3.[166][167] During its time in Los Angeles, the exhibition attracted 170,000 visitors.[168] An abridged version of the exhibition opened at theballroom of theWeitzman National Museum of American Jewish History inPhiladelphia, where it was on from October 6 to the 13.[169] The exhibition then travelled toMiami, where it opened on December 18, 2024, and was expected to last until February 16, 2025.[170][171] On January 16, 2025,Sara Netanyahu andNoa Argamani visited the exhibition in Miami. Argamani recounted her experience as a hostage held byHamas in Gaza.[172] A month later, Argamani made a second public appearance at the exhibition in Miami, this time alongside special envoySteve Witkoff who pledged to continue working for the release of all the hostages still held by Hamas.[173]
On April 23, 2025 the exhibition opened inToronto. The exhibition was expected to stay open until June 8, but was extended to June 22.Canadian Prime MinisterMark Carney made a private visit to the exhibition on June 9, which brought him to tears.[174] The exhibition moved toWashington D.C. on June 14 and was expected to stay open until July 6.[175]
During the exhibition's run in Culver City, a former hostage reclaimed a sweatshirt she lost at the site, and when the exhibition was in Miami, the father of one of the victims of the massacre found the shoes that he had given his son.[175]
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In videos from 7 October, the body of a young woman is lying face down in the back of a pickup truck, stripped to her underwear, one leg bent at an unnatural angle. One of the men sitting next to her pulls her long hair as armed men around him shout praises to God. Footage of the lifeless corpse of Shani Louk, a 22-year-old Israeli-German national, paraded around the streets of Gaza was some of the first to surface on 7 October, ...
Hamas operatives are seen celebrating and cheering in the pickup truck in which they had placed Louk's body, which was contorted in an unnatural angle, while Palestinians surrounding the truck shouted, "Allahu Akbar": [God is greatest in Arabic]. Two of the men spit on her.
One of the first viral videos of the conflict on Saturday appeared to show Shani being paraded on the back of a truck by Hamas militants ...
According to a police source, the investigation also indicates that an IDF combat helicopter that arrived to the scene and fired at terrorists there apparently also hit some festival participants.
