The Nova Festival memorial site near Kibbutz Re'im in southern Israel filled up on Wednesday with bereaved families and other visitors who came to mark three years since the October 7th Massacre and remember the victims.
Tazpit Press Service (TPS) photojournalist Yoav Dudkevitch walked among the monuments at the site and filmed the visitors, the families, and the moments of remembrance at the site where a joyous party turned into a Hamas murder fest.
Hundreds of civilians and members of the security forces were murdered at the festival massacre and while attempting to flee it. 44 partygoers were abducted to the Gaza Strip.
An IDF investigation found that approxamatly 3,5000 where at the Nova Music Festival on the morning of October 7th, 2023, including 400 production staff members, 31 armed police officers, and 75 unarmed security guards and ushers.
With the start of the rocket barrages from the Gaza Strip, a decision was made to disperse the event and evacuate the participants. According to the investigation, the decision to evacuate saved thousands of lives. Still, many of those fleeing encountered terrorists who had infiltrated Israel and set up ambushes along Route 232 and at intersections in the area.
At around 8:30 a.m., the terrorists managed to overwhelm the police and security forces at the northern roadblock and gain control of part of Route 232. About an hour later, the terrorists reached the festival grounds themselves.
According to the IDF investigation, the main massacre inside the Nova Festival compound took place between 9:15 and 10:10 a.m. At that time, around 200 people remained at the site, including wounded people, staff members, and police officers, and approximately 171 Israelis were murdered inside the compound itself.
Only toward 11:30 a.m. did a small force of soldiers, dispatched from Judea and Samaria under the command of the Shaked Battalion commander of the Givati Brigade, arrive at the site, joined by two members of the Metzada Unit. The force fought the terrorists, treated the wounded, and rescued survivors. By 3:00 p.m., the festival area had been cleared of terrorists.
Three years later, the area where the festival was held has become a large memorial site. In the place where stages once stood, and thousands of young people danced, there are now photographs of those murdered and memorial projects established by their families and friends.
On the anniversary of the massacre, thousands came to the site, walked among the memorials, and stopped to honor the memory of those who were murdered there and along the escape routes.
