The roads to Gaza in the first hours of the morning are free of traffic. This time of night, when it is still dark and even the first light of dawn has not arrived, brings a rare quiet over the country. At the entrance to Ashkelon, there is a gas station with lights on inside. The light is inviting, the only sign of warmth in the darkness. On the morning of October 7, 2024, I stopped, grabbed a coffee, and headed south toward the border of Gaza.
A year ago, I was asleep in Jerusalem. I was awakened after eight in the morning when sirens sounded in Jerusalem due to the Hamas rocket fire.
However, by that time, Israel was already under attack by thousands of terrorists, and Hamas had already massacred hundreds. A year later, I decided to go to the Gaza border to the site of the Nova festival, one of the worst sites of massacre on that day. There was a commemoration taking place.
I’ve been to the Nova festival site many times since October 7, once in the second week of the war when vehicles of the victims were still scattered in the fields, broken and abandoned.
The clothes of people who ran from the terrorists and who were killed were still strewn about. The armored shelters near the bus stops were still filled with dried blood.
Near the Gaza border, there was already some activity at around five in the morning.
Several cars with bicycles on the back were driving around. There are a large number of people who like to ride bicycles off-road in the area of the kibbutzim. A number of bicyclists were murdered on the morning of October 7. They were caught out in the trials by Hamas and killed.
Some of those venturing out this morning, a year later, were showing that Hamas could not take away their pastime from them.
Police checkpoints were hastily thrown up on the roads that parallel the Gaza border a year after the massacre. They were there to protect people and help direct traffic.
Many commemorations were being held near the border. Some of the Kibbutzim, for instance, held their own remembrance as many of them are still missing members who are being held in Gaza.
Route 232 leads to the site of the Nova Festival massacre. It passes several Kibbutzim, such as Beeri and Alumim. Each of these places has a story from October 7. Beeri and Kfar Aza were the site of terrible massacres. In other areas such as Alumim and Mefalsim, most of the residents survived.
This Road 232 was a road of death on October 7. That day, the Hamas terrorists massacred many drivers here. To drive the same route a year later is harrowing.
People driving on this road at 6:30 am would have had no idea that the first barrage of rockets was the opening salvo to a massacre.
They might have stopped and taken shelter, only to be massacred. And if they continued on their way they may have driven into the inferno.
The war in Gaza can still be heard.
The IDF’s 162nd Division is currently fighting in Jabaliya. This is the third time the IDF has gone into this neighborhood near Gaza City to clear out Hamas terrorists. Despite a year of war, Hamas still controls most of Gaza. However, the group has fewer rockets and poses less of a danger.
The site of the Nova festival massacre is contained in a square mile of land to the west of the 232. There is a forest and sites where the festival’s concert took place.
Some commemorations have been added over time. For instance, there is a field of flowers, trees, and a large open area with individual placards commemorating the victims.
Each of these signs shows a face, and there is an area below the sign where people bring candles, flowers, and other items. There are more memorials in the forest, with benches and individual areas set aside for families to visit their fallen loved ones. It is a dignified and complex series of memorials.
Much of what is poignant and significant about the site of the Nova festival massacre is that it has not been standardized or ruined by the hands of government authorities. However, it has slowly become more organized.
For now, though, it is still a place for families, loved ones, and regular people from all walks of life to gather.
On the morning of October 7, 2024, the dirt roads near the Nova site were full as hundreds of cars arrived. I joined a long line of people ambling among the trees toward the site. It was still dark, so the figures arriving could only be made out slightly, and each had a ghostly appearance walking in the dust. Eventually, dawn arrived, and more people came in a long, endless line to walk among the images of the dead.
The silence was punctuated by artillery fire in the distance. There was also the sound of machine-gun fire in Gaza and of the disciplined fire that meant it was the IDF.
Overhead, a drone flew, and two helicopters circled. The number of police, soldiers, and helicopters on the anniversary contrasted with the very small number of soldiers from the October 7 attack, as they had been outnumbered by the Hamas terrorists. A majority of the police presence near the festival was massacred, many of them trying to defend the festival-goers.
The people who gathered just before sunrise on October 7, 2024, came from all walks of life.
There was a motorcycle club. Soldiers and police came, young people and old. A high-ranking reserve officer sat next to me. A woman prayed. Many people came with the images of their fallen loved ones or friends emblazoned on their shirts.
One shirt has a quote that says, “Life is only as good as your mindset,” and another shows two people on it and says, “Maya and Eliran Forever.” A group brought balloons with the names of the killed and attached them to benches.
In Remembrance
The commemoration ceremony began after 6:30 a.m. A brief sequence of music was played, the same music that had been played when the festival stopped due to the rocket fire.
Then organizers gathered, and there were short statements, and one man played a guitar.
Israel’s President Herzog arrived and walked among the crowds. No other politicians were present. In fact, with the exception of the police, who helped direct traffic and secure the location, there was no evidence the state was present at all.
There is something symbolic in this. On October 7 these thousands of people at the Nova festival were also left on their own, with the state mostly absent, soldiers nearby under siege by terrorists, tanks overrun.
People who fled the festival and survived mostly ran east and many of these people were rescued by civilian volunteers.
The absence of Israel’s politicians from this event is essential. The politicians have not investigated the October 7 massacre.
A number of them seemed unable to face the victims, embrace the families of the hostages, or even confront the horrors of that day. There are exceptions, but their absence from this one-year anniversary was a welcome change from the claims that Israel is pursuing total victory in Gaza or that the hostages are a priority after so long.
One year after the massacre, we find ourselves only a few miles from Gaza, where over 100 hostages are still being held captive. It's impossible not to think about how long they've been left there, both civilians and soldiers.