Bar Asraf was not at the Nova Music Festival when terrorists burst through the Gaza border fence and massacred those in attendance — along with hundreds more Israelis — on Oct. 7, 2023. And yet, as reports emerged that he had taken his own life on Saturday night at the grave of his close, longtime friend Liron Barda, who was murdered at the festival, Asraf was widely described as a “Nova survivor.”

More than just a mistake or misunderstanding, this confusion speaks to Asraf’s standing as what Efrat Atun, the CEO of SafeHeart — an Israeli nonprofit providing assistance to Nova survivors and their families — calls the “first-and-a-half-degree victims.” 

Speaking to eJewishPhilanthropy on Monday, Atun said that these are, obviously, not the survivors who were physically present at the attacks. But they are also not a full degree removed from the attacks either, having been in contact with loved ones who were there in real time. These are mainly the immediate families of survivors or close friends, Atun said.

“They experienced these things live — over the phone or through WhatsApp messages,” she said.

After his death, Asraf’s sister, Lihi, told the Walla news site that her brother had been struggling since Barda’s death, but that he hadn’t told anyone. “We were just at my brother’s wedding. Apparently, he started to feel lonely,” she said. “His best friend was murdered at the Nova [festival]. He has a tattoo of her. She was part of his soul.”

While billions of shekels’ worth of governmental and philanthropic funding have been poured into mental health programs since the Oct. 7 attacks, particularly for survivors and for combat veterans, these more peripheral groups are still struggling to get the help that they need, according to Atun.

“This is not the first suicide among these first-and-a-half-degree victims,” she noted.

For families, the strain has often been twofold. They both personally experienced the horrors of watching the attacks play out in real time and then, in many cases, are helping their child or their sibling through a difficult recovery period, Atun said, noting that a study by Safe Heart and the University of Haifa found that roughly 65% of Nova survivors have severe post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. 

Following the attacks, many survivors struggling with mental health difficulties have moved back in with their parents. “They are working less to care for their child, but their expenses haven’t decreased,” Atun said. Their loved ones with PTSD can suffer from mood swings, angry outbursts, sleepless nights and other symptoms that can be difficult for family members to handle. While Oct. 7 survivors are eligible for more state-funded treatments and benefits from the National Insurance Institute — albeit only if they go through the grueling process of having their diagnosis recognized — their families are not. 

Atun noted that one of her organization’s major successes was getting a law passed to provide family members with 24 therapy sessions — enough for roughly five months. (This would not have been available to Asraf, who was not related to Barda.) 

“The whole families need a [therapeutic] process,” Atun said.

As the Knesset has disbanded for the summer and as politicians prepare for the upcoming national elections, there is little hope for a new piece of legislation to provide support for these “first-and-a-half degree victims” in the near future, though Atun said her group was continuing to push for a comprehensive law once the parliament reconvenes. 

A number of emotional support lines are available in Israel, including ERAN by dialing 1201 and NATAL by dialing *3362. In the United States, you can dial 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.