TEL AVIV, Israel — Survivors of the October 7 terror attack at the Supernova music festival gathered Wednesday evening at a lakefront for trance music, group therapy, and an opportunity to reconnect with one another.
As 4,000 people — dancers, bartenders, and security personnel — watched the sunrise from the Re’im forest on that fateful Saturday, Hamas terrorists few across the Gaza border on paragliders or blew holes in the fence and entered on pickup trucks.
“We thought the paragliders were part of the festival,” said Raz Malka, one of the organizers of the Tel Aviv gathering. “The year before, we had a trance party for the Jewish holiday of Purim, and a bunch of Israeli paragliders flew past the party, so we thought it was familiar.”
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades via StoryfulThe scenes of horror and devastation that followed were broadcast around the world. Terrorists mowed down anyone they saw, even firing into bathroom stalls. Desperate people fled to bomb shelters along the nearby road — only to be followed by terrorists, who flung grenades and fired machine guns inside.
There were 403 people murdered at the festival — a third of the 1200 Israelis who were killed by Hamas that day. Dozens were kidnapped from the festival and taken to Gaza; many of those are still being held hostage in Gaza.
RE’EIM, ISRAEL – APRIL 7: Orly Efraim reacts to a photo of her niece Eden Liza Auhaion, displayed near the marker of her niece who was killed on the October 7 Hamas deadly attack at the Nova music festival on April 7, 2024 in Re’eim, Israel. April 7th marks six months since Hamas led an attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking around 250 people hostage. In response, Israel launched a retaliatory war in Gaza that has killed more than 33,000 people, according to the Gazan health ministry. As the latest round of ceasefire negotiations have stalled, the humanitarian crisis worsens in Gaza, while more than 100 Israeli hostages remain in captivity. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)
Many survived by hiding in ravines, or in nearby fields. Some were rescued by drivers who braved gunfire and roadblocks to pull people out — then returned again for more. The stories of heroism and sacrifice abound.
And for the survivors, the trauma has continued — the daily ups and downs, the depression, the elation. “It’s like an addiction,” Malka says. “You become addicted to the adrenaline of survival.”
To help each other through the experience, the survivors have been holding gatherings — daily through September, and weekly ever since.
At this event, the first outdoor event of the year, there was a DJ spinning trance tunes, and people lounging on the beach by the lake.
Several healing booths had been set up — a group therapy area, a booth for massage therapy, and even a tattoo parlor. Other people offer advice about going back to work, or starting school again — a challenge for many of the survivors.
The gatherings are private, and not open to the public. But there are volunteers who help, and donations are welcome, Malka says, to help with the continued costs of holding the gathering.
“We need this,” Malka told Breitbart News. “Last week, we were in the middle of moving sites, and we didn’t have a gathering. People called me: ‘We need this!'”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
