‘We dance on’: Emotional photos show survivors of October 7 massacre meeting up at Tel Aviv festival for the first time
Survivors and relatives of partygoers who were tragically killed at the Nova Festival during the deadly Hamas raid on October 7 will remember the victims tonight at a memorial concert in Tel Aviv.
The Nova Festival, an EDM music festival held just a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip border, was the first venue attacked by Hamas on Black Saturday. The terror group killed 364 people and took 40 hostage during their raid.
This is where the highest concentration of murders took place on October 7.
But in defiance of the militant group’s action, scores of Israelis were seen dancing and singing to music at the “We Will Dance Again” concert, held tonight in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park.
Proceeds from ticket sales will go towards raising money for the rehabilitation of the massacre survivors and the victims’ families.
Survivors and relatives of revelers who tragically died at the Nova Festival during the deadly Hamas raid on October 7 will remember the victims tonight during a memorial concert
In protest against the militant group’s action, scores of Israelis were seen dancing and singing to music during the ‘We Will Dance Again’ concert
Proceeds from ticket sales will go towards raising money for the rehabilitation of the survivors of the massacre and the families of the victims.
The Nova Festival, an EDM music festival held just a few kilometers from the Gaza border, was the first venue attacked by Hamas on Black Saturday
Many of Israel’s biggest artists, including Benaia Barabi, Berry Sakharof, Noga Erez, Mosh Ben-Ari and Ninet Tayeb, were scheduled to perform tonight.
The artists will play a range of electronic music, in remembrance of what happened at the festival, as well as several trance pieces that were intended to be played at the Nova festival.
But while Israeli families were celebrating the lives of their loved ones, Gaza families had to say goodbye Thursday with tears in their eyes to nearly two dozen seriously ill children who left Gaza to be treated abroad.
It is the first medical evacuation since the area’s only border crossing was closed in early May after Israeli forces seized the border, Palestinian officials said.
Kamela Abukweik burst into tears after her son boarded the bus with her mother towards the intersection. Neither she nor her husband were given permission to leave.
Many of Israel’s biggest artists were scheduled to perform tonight
The artists will play a range of electronic music, commemorating what happened at the festival
Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ attack on October 7, in which militants stormed into southern Israel and killed about 1,200 people – mostly civilians
A boy eats a piece of watermelon as he walks with a woman on a market street in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on June 27, 2024
“He has tumors all over his body and we don’t know what’s causing it. And he has a fever all the time,” she said. “I still don’t know where he’s going.”
It was not clear where they would be treated. The children and their adult companions left Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on their way to the Kerem Shalom cargo crossing with Israel. Israeli authorities say 68 patients and companions have been allowed to leave the Gaza Strip for Egypt.
The nearly nine-month war between Israel and Hamas has devastated Gaza’s healthcare system and forced most hospitals to close. Dr. Mohammed Zaqout, the head of Gaza’s hospitals, said more than 25,000 patients need treatment abroad, including some 980 children with cancer, a quarter of whom need “urgent and immediate evacuation.”
International criticism of Israel’s campaign against Hamas is growing as Palestinians face severe and widespread hunger. The eight-month war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic supplies to Gaza, leaving people there completely dependent on aid. The United Nations’ top court has concluded that there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza – a charge Israel vehemently denies.
Israel started the war in Gaza after Hamas’ attack on October 7, in which militants swept into southern Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250.
Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombings have killed more than 37,600 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, which makes no distinction between fighters and civilians in its count.