A heavy silence hung in the air, broken at times by a wail and by the pounding of not-too-distant artillery cannons, at the site of the Nova music festival at 6:29 a.m. this morning. That was the moment when one year ago today Hamas launched its deadly assault on southern Israel, first with a barrage of rockets and mortar shells, followed by a mass border breach that caught the Israeli military entirely off-guard, in which some 1,200 people — mainly civilians — were killed, thousands more were wounded and over 250 taken hostage. A year later, 101 remain in captivity, with no serious negotiations underway to secure their release as Hamas has abandoned the talks.

Approximately 1,000 people — mainly family and friends of those murdered at the Nova festival — gathered at the site before dawn for the one-year anniversary. Before the service and afterward, they gathered at the makeshift memorial that has been built at the site, lighting candles and saying prayers at the photograph-topped markers for each of the 364 people who were murdered at the festival. Some had visited the area, outside Kibbutz Reim, several times before, while others were there for the first time. 

“I come here every two weeks,” Moti Harlev, whose 41-year-old daughter, Hila Keylin, came to the festival to celebrate her Oct. 5 birthday, told eJP.

“This is the last place where she enjoyed herself. And because of that I come here,” said Harlev, who came with his family, including three of Keylin’s four children. (The youngest, 9, stayed home.) “We help her children as much as we can. They came here today, but I’m not sure it is good for them.”

Sigal Baron came from the central town of Ramat HaSharon to mourn her 25-year-old niece, Yuval Baron, and Yuval’s 33-year-old fiance, Moshe Shuva, who were murdered by terrorists in the fields outside of the festival. (They planned to have their wedding on Valentine’s Day.) It was Sigal’s fifth time visiting the site, but she brought along her son, Nadav, who was Yuval’s best friend and had never been to the Nova memorial.

“It was very important for me to come here, to be next to them. This is where they were, and it is important to be here with the family,” Sigal Baron told eJP. “They were a young couple planning their wedding. They didn’t have to die. Now they are buried together with a big heart. It is very difficult because there is a feeling of loss, that something was bungled. Look at the north now with all the military. Where were they on Oct. 7? This should not have happened. It has not been an easy year.”

Some of the attendees did not have direct ties to the Nova massacre, but came anyway in a show og support.

“I felt the need to come here even though it is really difficult. It is very sad, like being in a bad movie,” said Avigdor Yazdi, who came from the Tel Aviv suburb of Givatayim with his 19-year-old son, Ariel.

Ariel said he had wanted to come to understand what had happened there Oct. 7. “[I needed] to understand that what we see on TV really happened. It is different being here. You understand that [Oct
7] is still continuing. It hasn’t ended. Each name here is a person,” he said.

The organizers of the memorial service had originally planned to sound a siren to mark the moment, but the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command would not allow it out of concern that it would confuse attendees in case of a rocket attack at the same time. (This was not unfounded: four rockets were fired from Gaza at the nearby Israeli communities at 6:30 — three were intercepted and the fourth struck an unpopulated area — and the Israeli military said it thwarted such a larger barrage that Hamas had planned to carry out.)

To mark the start of the ceremony, the organizers played the final song that was performed at the festival before the massacre began — “Clear Test Signal” by Pixel & Space Cat.

During the service, Menashe Manzuri, who lost two daughters and a future son-in-law said the Yizkor (memorial) prayer, and Dasi Aviad, who lost a son, recited El Maleh Rachamim (God full of mercy). Jojo Rabia and Yoav Rivlin, who both lost two sons (Rabia also lost a future daughter-in-law) said Kaddish.

One of the organizers of the ceremony was Yoram Yehudai, whose 24-year-old son, Ron, was one of nine young people murdered by a terrorist while hiding in a dumpster some five hours after the Hamas assault began.

Several months after the attack, he tracked down and bought the dumpster where his son was killed, which was being used to collect garbage and, together with artist Amir Chodorov, turned it into a miniature museum.

“It is tragic in many levels,” Yehudai told eJP. “The army had five hours to come to save them but they didnt do anything. They failed. We are so angry about that. We are so sad. Something wrong happened here and that resulted in nine people being killed here. This museum is important for people to learn about what happened here. It’s very important that nobody forgets this day and nobody forgets them.”

Yehudai was not alone in his outrage at the military’s slow response. “It is outrageous. I am still asking the question what would have happened if the army had arrived here sooner. We are still in shock,” said Avigail Erez, whose daughter’s friend, Maya Bitton, 22, was killed at the festival with her fiance, Eliran Mizrahi, 23.

Eric Goldstein, the CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, spoke at the memorial, bringing “strength and solidarity” from the Jewish community of New York and highlighting the projects that his organization has funded in support of the survivors of the Nova massacre and families of the victims.

“The horrific massacre that took place right here and across the [Gaza border] region on Oct. 7 changed Israel forever. But it also forever changed world Jewry,” said Goldstein, who was taking part in a UJA-Federation of New York solidarity mission. “You and your loved ones were on the front lines and you continue to be. But we the Jews of America deeply understand that an attack against you is an attack against us, and we Jews in America are vulnerable when Israel is vulnerable.”

“Your fight is our fight. Do not think for a moment that you are alone,” he said. “The courage, the unbreakable spirit and the determination of the Nova tribe to keep dancing has moved all of us in an incredibly profound way. The road ahead remains long and is uncertain, but please know that the New York Jewish community, the American Jewish community, will be with the Nova tribe and all of the people of Israel forever.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and his wife, First Lady Michal, attended the ceremony but did not make a public address. Afterward though, he spoke to journalists, calling the Oct. 7 massacres a “scar on humanity… a scar on the face of the Earth.”

“We have to do whatever we can by all ways and means possible to bring back our hostages who are there in the tunnels and dungeons of Gaza. And the world has to realize and understand that in order to change the course of history and bring peace, a better future to the region, it must support Israel in its battle against its enemies,” Herzog said. “Blessed be those who fell, who were murdered and killed here. Young people who came to celebrate and enjoy dance and music — to live a real life of young people as any young person should be entitled to. Let us remember them forever.”