'The whole event was just erased': Survivor of Israel's Nova Festival massacre recounts horror of Hamas attack

October 7, 2023, was an ordinary Sunday for Israel till it was stormed by deadly rocket attacks by Hamas. Thousands of revelers had gathered in the country’s southern border with Gaza for the Nova festival where they were dancing to loud beats but as the night turned into day, airstrikes and gunshots were the only thing the concert-goers could hear.

A 28-year-old man named Jonathan Diller, who survived the Nova Festival massacre recounted his experience. His account was shared by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on X.

“There were around 3,000 people in the festival and over 260 of them died, slaughtered to death. Some were also kidnapped. The whole event was just erased,” the Italian-American said.

Jonathan survived the Nova Festival massacre in Israel. Others didn’t. pic.twitter.com/xZfaPcUcWz

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 16, 2023

Narrating the horrific day, Diller said that he and his group of friends were dancing when suddenly they saw rockets. “We were not surprised. This is something that has happened in the past. We knew the drill,” he said.

“I then saw a woman whose knee was shot and was bleeding. We tried to find something to block her wound as they (Hamas) were shooting around us. In the meantime, she just died in front of our eyes,” Diller said.

He added that hundreds of people were devastated as they could not find their friends and loved ones.

The attack on the open-air Tribe of Nova music festival is believed to be the worst civilian massacre in Israeli history, with at least 260 dead and a still undetermined number taken hostage. Dozens of Hamas militants who had blown through Israel’s heavily fortified separation fence and crossed into the country from Gaza opened fire on about 3,500 young Israelis.

With inputs from AP