Nova Music Festival Site Memorial(Reim)

The Nova Music Festival Site

The Nova Music Festival is an electronic and trance music festival produced during the Sukkot Holiday by the Nova Tribe. It occurred between October 6 and 7, 2023 in an open area near Kibbutz Reim, only about 4.5 km from the Gaza Strip. DJs and well-known electronic and trance music artists from Israel and worldwide performed at the festival.

Today, the Nova festival site in Reim is a memorial for the victims of the October 7th party with photos and tombstones that their family members established. Since January 2024 JNF planted a memorial forest of 364 pine trees in memory of the victims.

Roughly 4,500 people were at the Nova festival at the time of the massacre, and 364 people were killed

The party took place in a very sensitive location since the distance to the Gaza Strip is about 5 km, therefore special permission from the army is required. The first request was submitted about 3 months before the event. It was rejected by the Gaza Division's operations officer, Sahar Fogel, and then two more requests were made; eventually, permission was granted to hold the party about a week before October 6, 2023, plus an additional day, doubling the party's duration.

Despite the resistance of the operations officer and other commanders on the claim that on the holiday of Simchat Torah and Shabbat, there are not enough soldiers to secure the event, Major General Nimrod Cibolski gave the green light to hold the party. Is this really the case? With real permission or a bribe? We have to wait to find out.

The Nova Music Festival Site Massacre

On the cursed day of the year, October 7, 2023, at 6:29 a.m., the surprise attack by the Hamas terrorist organization on Israel began. Thousands of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, and the police ordered to stop the music and evacuate the location. About 30 minutes later, Hamas terrorists were already on the ground of the party.

Except for the missiles that were fired into Israeli territory, Hamas' Nukhba terrorists came from all over! In white pick-up trucks from the main road just like Isis and paragliders that crossed the border from the air. The terrorists started shooting everywhere with pistols, Kalashnikov rifles, RPG rockets, and throwing hand grenades. The goal was to murder as many participants as possible, regardless of religion, race, or gender. Celebrators were murdered in the party area and the surrounding area as they tried to escape to the main road 232, which was named later on as the"Death Road", where dozens of armed terrorists were waiting and ready to kill. In addition, Hamas terrorists kidnapped people alive and dead to the Gaza Strip.

•  An Israeli tank that had been damaged near the Gaza Strip's border accidentally came up to the party area. The tank crew saw a struggle between the police and Hamas Nukhba terrorists. The tank was parked between the police forces and the terrorists, providing them a cover. One of the tank's crew members was murdered when he came out unarmed to fight Hamas terrorists. Ido Somech, the tank's driver and the last member of the crew, noticed that the Hamas terrorists had begun climbing the tank and Ido was able to escape the terrorists by driving over many abandoned cars which we can find today at Tkuma. The tank was disabled and Ido escaped...he was saved.

• The Kingfisher Shelter - Outside the Nova compound, on road 232, about 30 of the party participants hid inside a Migunit(shelter) that is supposed to protect people from missiles but not from terrorist infiltration. The hero Aner Shapiro, a fighter in the Nahal unit who was on vacation, stood at the entrance to the shelter to protect the people who were hiding inside. The terrorists who arrived at the scene shot into the shelter but because there was an inner wall they were unable to hit anyone, so they started throwing grenades into the shelter. Aner succeeded in throwing at least seven grenades out. The eighth and last grenade went in and exploded. In less than an hour, after a desperate fight, more than 12 of the young men and women in the bunker were killed(Karin Shwartzman). The rest were taken hostages in Gaza, One of them is Hirsch Polin Goldberg. Only 4 people survived.

• Tank case #2 - About 35 people noticed an abandoned tank near the Nova festival compound and hid behind it. Two of them entered the tank and discovered the weapon of a dead soldier. The M16 gun was filled with sand. One of the women had a small tube of Vaseline, somehow they were able to clean and activate the weapon! They called a friend, an IDF officer, who gave them instructions over the phone on how to load and fire the tank's machine gun. The group that was close to the tank managed to repel Hamas terrorists and were saved.

A large part of the party participants managed to escape to the nearby kibbutzim, to the fields, to the forest, and Road 232. Many fled to the scattered shelters in the hope that the terrorists would not reach them. Also thanks to people like Ron Binyamin and Lior Bar and other heroes who traveled back and forth and rescued people under fireת More people were saved from this terrible massacre.

The main problem was the congestion and the distance that made it impossible for the rescue forces to arrive in time. There were a lot of terrorists in the Nova Party area and also in the entire southern area, there were battles with Hamas terrorists, so the arrival time was delayed. Even large cities like Ofakim and Sderot were not safe to escape because Hamas terrorists invaded there as well.

Only a few hours later, additional forces arrived and fought battles with the hundreds of terrorists who were in the area, but it was already too late, every moment they found more and more bodies thrown in the forest and on the sides of the road, and the number of those killed gradually increased. Today we know that 364 people were murdered, including policemen and employees of the Nova Party.

The Nova Party - The Biggest Terrorist Attack in the Country's History

The massacre at the Nova party is the largest attack the State of Israel has ever known, previous cases such as the explosion of the bus during the intifada in Dizengof, the attack on the Maksim restaurant, the dolphinarium, or even the Park Hotel terrorist attack do not coincide in terms of the number of people killed and the extent of the damage on the 7th of October 2023.

Previous cases should not be underestimated, of course, but what happened on this cursed day reached simply unimaginable proportions.

Was the Attack on the Nova Festival Planned?

The Nova festival is an underground music festival, the tickets are bought in advance but the location is only sent the day before so the accepted hypothesis that Hamas planned to reach the location of the party is ruled out.

In the Nova Party area, bodies of terrorists were found with maps on them with exact instructions on where to invade and who to kill, including kibbutzim, schools, and even kindergartens! Because the attack took place on Shabbat, it makes no sense to attack a school or kindergarten because they don't operate on Shabbat anyway.

After a police investigation of the terrorists who were captured alive, it became clear that the festival was not one of Hamas' targets at all. None of the terrorists knew in advance about the Nova party, but as soon as the evacuation of the participants began, the terrorists changed their route to the festival complex and took the opportunity to kill as many people as possible.

The Abduction to Gaza Strip From the Nova

On the day of the attack, the Hamas terrorists kidnapped 251 people, alive and dead, from Israel to the Gaza Strip. From the Nova festival, 44 people were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.

Many cases have been published since the seventh of October.

1. The kidnapping of Noa Argamani and her partner, fortunately, the IDF rescued her, and Noa was returned alive to Israel.

2. Mia Leshem and her brother who were kidnapped to Gaza, were returned as part of the first hostage deal after 53 days.

3. The abduction of Shani Luke, a citizen of Israel and Germany who was brutally abducted when she was injured and without clothes, Shani was taken on a white pickup to Gaza and the residents of the Gaza Strip cheered with joy. In May 2024, her body was taken from the Gaza Strip back to Israel.

4. Hirsch Polin Goldberg was abducted from the shelter of Reim, Hirsch is still in captivity and it is not known where he is.

5. Many others who were abducted to the Gaza Strip were eventually declared dead.

Where is the Nova Festival site Location and How to Get There?

The Nova Festival site is located near Kibbutz Re'im in southern Israel, close to the border with the Gaza Strip. To get there:

1. From Tel Aviv: Take Route 20 to Route 4 South. Continue on Route 4 and then take Route 232 towards the Re'im parking lot, then turn to the dirt route and continue driving 300 meters.
2. From Jerusalem: Take Route 1 West to Route 3 towards Ashkelon, then take Route 232 toward the Reim parking lot, and continue the dirt route 300 meters.

Free Parking on the spot.

The area is accessible by car, and it's advisable to check current security conditions before visiting.

 Today you can visit the Nova Music Festival Site Memorial on a private tour of the Gaza Envelope