Israeli Nova site hit by Hamas draws tourists
At the site of the bloodiest incident in Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel, foreigners and Israelis walk between placards that carry the names and photos of the dead killed at an open-air rave.
A memorial at Kibbutz Re’im on Dec. 11, 2023, where Hamas terrorists massacred 364 Israelis at the Oct. 7 Nova music festival. Photo by Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS
Some take videos and pictures on their mobile phones, others weep.
“It’s very important to come and see with your own eyes,” said Samantha Malcar, from Canada.
“You see all these posters of real faces and you see the destruction.
“You see these were real people who lost their lives just for coming to a party.”
Thousands of young people were partying in the dawn hours of October 7 when the gunmen swept in from Gaza.
According to authorities, 364 people were shot, bludgeoned, or burned to death and some were sexually assaulted at the Nova festival in a stretch of tree-dotted brush near Kibbutz Re’im.
About 40 were taken hostage back to Gaza, 5km away.
Some tourists come on visits organised by civil society groups, others come independently to pay tribute to those killed at the Nova festival.
It was the single most deadly incident in a shock cross-border assault by Hamas in which 1200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage.
Israel’s subsequent war aimed at eliminating the militant group that rules Gaza has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, health authorities in the enclave say.
AAP
