A woman weeps at the Nova Healing Concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. This was the first Tribe of Nova mass gathering since the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas that left hundreds at the Nova music festival dead or kidnapped to Gaza.
Hila Fakliro, a communications student who was tending bar at the festival, escaped by zigzagging through fields, hiding and running for over five hours, until she reached the safety of a village some 20 kilometers away. Six of her friends were killed and another three were taken hostage. Survivors began to gather to deal with the trauma they had experienced together. On the first day, 500 showed up. That number doubled the following day. After three months, they shifted to weekly Community Day events and encouraged survivors to return to their regular lives and jobs.
Sivan Cohen, 30, said ahead of the event Thursday that she would be “dancing for two.” Her partner of six years, Yaniv Sarudi, 26, was killed while trying to drive a car filled with nine festivalgoers to safety. Cohen was shot in the leg and, at first, she wasn’t sure if she would ever walk again, much less dance.
“The only way to really commemorate these people is through living what they lived, which is dancing. That’s what they came there to do,” Eyal Porat said as he entered the festival.