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Hamas Terror on Israel

E. Attack on the Nova Music Festival

Timeline and crime scenes

Section titled “Timeline and crime scenes”

  1. The Nova festival saw the highest number of people killed by the military wing of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups on 7 October in one location. Nearly a quarter of all Israeli casualties that day were from the Nova festival. 379 people were killed either at the site, near kibbutz Re’im or in adjacent locations. Of these, at least 364 were festival attendees out of some 3,000 festival-goers.1 Around 40 people were taken hostage to Gaza. In the weeks following the attack, Israeli media reported that, according to the Israeli security assessment, the militants did not know about the festival site in advance of the attack. Following the attack, Israeli security officials concluded that the militants found out about the festival as they flew over the area using motorized hang-gliders.2

  2. At 06:22, sirens were heard at the festival site, an open space located between kibbutz Re’im and kibbutz Be’eri, alerting people to a rocket attack from Gaza. Shortly after that, the Chief of Police of Ofakim Station, who was present at the scene, issued an order to disperse the Nova festival and instructed festival-goers to leave the site. Reportedly the Chief of Police was operating under instructions issued by the Southern Police Command. According to official reports, there were 40 police officers on-site at this time, securing the festival site. According to an interim investigation by the Southern Police Command, festival-goers were dispersed from the site almost immediately after the sirens started, allowing them some 30 minutes to escape before the militants reached the site.

  3. In a media interview, a police officer stationed at the site stated that he first knew about the arrival of Palestinian militants in areas adjacent to the site at approximately 06:50, when a young woman ran towards the festival’s first aid station with a bloody face. She told officers that there were Palestinian militants on road 232 shooting at civilians on the road. The same officer reported that he then informed other police officers to move the police force from the festival site to the main road intersection. He noticed a huge traffic jam at the intersection, with many empty cars blocking the road. Under heavy fire from Palestinian militants and based on his understanding that road 232 was unsafe towards Be’eri to the north and Re’im to the south, he instructed a large group of festival-goers to cross the road and move along a field in the direction of Urim to the east. According to the police’s interim investigation, police received the first report of shooting close to the festival site at 07:01. At around the same time, militants positioned themselves along road 232, shooting festival-goers trying to escape by car as well as other passing vehicles. At around 08:00, Palestinian militants reached the main festival site and started shooting at fleeing and hiding festival-goers.

  4. Palestinian militants essentially kept the festival site under their effective control until at least 12.30, shooting and killing at will. Survivor accounts of those who fled by foot over open fields in the eastern direction described the experience as “like shooting ducks” and “perpetrators were driving bikes and golfcarts over the field and were among running partygoers and shot them”. While some decided to flee east during this time3, other festival-goers tried to hide inside the main festival arena or in other locations around the festival site. Many of them were subsequently killed or injured. Killing, and causing bodily harm in the main Nova festival area

  5. The main festival site was under the full control of Palestinian militants for up to four hours, from around 08:30 until around 12:30. During this period, members of Hamas military wing, other Palestinian armed groups and Palestinians dressed in civilian clothes actively searched for people who were hiding and killed them when found. The majority of festival-goers who decided to stay and hide at the main festival site were killed during this period.

  6. The Commission viewed and verified a video showing two people fleeing the main festival site near the perimeter fence at around 09:20. The two are seen running past a silver car parked in the main festival site. One of them drops suddenly to the ground, likely having just been shot, and stops moving. The second person is seen hiding behind the silver car. Hamas militants are then seen dragging a person, likely taking the person captive. The second hidden person is clearly visible in the background, crouching near the silver car. Immediately afterwards, an armed militant approaches the silver car and shoots the hiding man at close range. Dash-cam footage of the same location from 12:09 shows a group of Palestinians dressed in civilian clothes who proceed to search the body lying on the ground and loot the vehicle. At 12:12 dash-cam footage shows armed Palestinians discovering a young woman hiding inside the silver vehicle. They pull her out of the vehicle and surround her. The woman is then seen waving her arms, trying to attract attention to herself, likely to attract the attention of Israeli Security Forces that entered the scene at around that time. The video cuts after this.

  7. At least 15 people were killed in the area in front of and inside the main bar. Israeli troops arriving on the scene at 13:08 that day filmed their discovery of the bodies. The first bodies are seen lying on the ground outside the bar area and at least seven other bodies are visible inside the bar area.

  8. Video footage filmed by a survivor who was hiding under the stage reveals that at 08:19 the stage area was largely empty, while at 08:26 at least 11 people were hiding there. Sounds of sporadic shooting from a distance can be heard in the background of both videos, suggesting that armed militants had not quite reached the location but were closing in. By 09:14 several of those who hid under the stage left the area to hide in surrounding bushes. The survivor who filmed these videos stated that he had hidden under the stage for around one hour, during which period people kept joining the hiding place, until there were some 30 to 40 people hiding there. After around one hour they heard someone shouting, “get out from the stage, they will kill you”. The survivor then decided to leave the stage area along with several others and ran some 200 meters to nearby bushes where they hid for around five hours until they were rescued.

  9. One survivor, who was hiding in a white shipping container in the main festival area, reported seeing out of the window militants opening fridge doors at the bar and shooting at those who were hiding inside, and then shooting at the space under the stage. He said “I heard them executing people there. Shouting, shooting and then quiet. Shouting, shooting and then quiet.” The same survivor reported a van parked in the vicinity of the stage that was set ablaze, killing those hiding inside.

  10. Approximately 14 people were killed while hiding in yellow garbage containers, located northeast of the parking area. A female survivor of this incident stated that she had tried to escape to her vehicle along with her partner but failed to reach the vehicle and had to turn around in the direction of the containers. The two then hid inside one of the yellow containers, while armed Palestinians were shooting outside. Militants then threw grenades into a garbage container adjacent to the one they were hiding in. They heard a girl shouting: “please don’t take me, please leave me alone”. The survivor was injured by a bullet to her hip but managed to lie quietly until she was rescued by other Israeli civilians who evacuated her to the hospital. According to the testimony of a company commander of Givati brigade, one of the first members of Israeli Security Forces to arrive at the scene, his company arrived at around 10:30 and they were told not to shoot at the yellow containers since civilians were hiding inside. They heard shouts from one of the containers and proceeded to rescue and evacuate the people. They witnessed bodies lying on the garbage and injured people. According to him, the evacuation of people from the containers was carried out while armed Palestinians, including looters, were still at the scene.

  11. Adjacent to the yellow garbage containers was a row of portable yellow toilets where festival-goers had reportedly hidden. The Commission was unable to confirm the total number of people who had hidden there. It is likely that only three people, two women and one man, all hiding in one stall, survived. The two female survivors stated in a media interview that a large group of armed Palestinians positioned themselves close to their toilet stalls and were shooting at the festival site from there, with their backs to the toilet stalls. After a while they heard someone asking in Hebrew, “is anyone here?”. They did not respond and seconds later they heard “Allahu Akbar”, and the militants started shooting at the line of toilet stalls. Footage published by militants shows them systematically shooting into all the toilet stalls. The three survivors spent nine hours in the toilet stall until they were rescued.

Killing and causing bodily harm on road 232 and surrounding areas

Section titled “Killing and causing bodily harm on road 232 and surrounding areas”

  1. Road 232, which links the villages in the Otef Aza region, played a key role in the 7 October attack. Palestinian militants’ control of this road from the early hours of the day was key to their ability both to send reinforcements to the Nova site and to block or delay the arrival of Israeli Security Forces. Their control of key intersections along this road was arguably a vital component in their ability to carry out their attacks on the villages of Otef Aza and also a major hindrance to the arrival of security forces and medical personnel to treat victims and evacuate people. Given the large deployment of armed members of Hamas military wing and of other Palestinian armed groups along this road, the capture of the road appears to have been planned in advance to facilitate other attacks in the area and prevent or delay the arrival of Israeli reinforcements.

  2. Following the attack, hundreds of cars were found around the exit from the Nova festival site spilling over to road 232. One witness stated that he saw bodies piled on top of each other. Another witness told the Commission that, while he was driving along road 232 on 8 October, cars were still burning. Many bodies were strewn along the road and blood stains were visible on the road. A first responder reported receiving bodies for identification at Shura Camp. He stated that many of the bodies recovered from the Nova festival cars were badly burned. Footage shot by an Israeli news channel shows overturned vehicles at the sides of the road. ZAKA4 teams reported that they found burned human remains in the vehicles.

  3. Dozens of militants are seen in dashcam footage arriving at the area of the exit from the Nova festival site onto road 232, while people are fleeing to the field. The militants are dressed in full or partial uniforms with combat webbing. They arrive in at least three pick-up trucks, disembark the trucks and shoot towards the open field where people can be seen running in the distance. In another video taken by the same dashcam, a man is seen being dragged by militants and then shot on the side of the road.

  4. Many of those who hid in parked cars at the intersection were killed in their cars by militants who, according to reports, methodologically approached each car and killed those inside. One witness stated on an Israeli news segment “I hid in a car under the glove compartment, barely beathing, not talking. Keeping quiet. The terrorists just shot at all the cars there. Car, car, car, car. And then they arrived with us, the terrorists. I was with my head down and my friend had his head up.” A second witness hiding in the same car continued the testimony by saying: “I saw two terrorists on the hood of my car. It was a matter of seconds, he looked at me, I looked at him. And then he turned his weapon towards me. Then I heard a really loud noise of something driving on the road, I saw a tank 5 coming towards us who scared the terrorists away.”

  5. An investigative report published in Haaretz found that Palestinian militants laid ambushes at 37 different locations on road 232 where they killed tens of people. This list includes the Re’im intersection (51 killed), kibbutz Mefalsin (42 killed), Gama intersection (29 killed) and Sha’ar Hanegev intersection (26 killed).6

  6. The Commission documented information on the ambush set by militants on road 232 close to Meflasim. One survivor and her husband stated in a radio interview that they escaped from the Nova festival at 06:50 and drove on road 232 north for eight minutes towards kibbutz Mefalsim. At around 07:00 they reached an intersection close to Mefalsim when they saw militants on the road. The survivor described the scene as a ‘firing squad’ positioned just before the kibbutz. Their car was shot at multiple times, resulting in the explosion of their tyres. She stated that one of the shooters was a young boy around 12-years-old. Following the shooting their car was no longer operational and the couple escaped to the side of the road, where they lay down on the ground and pretended to be dead. They lay on the ground for some five hours. The witness stated that, while they were lying on the ground, she witnessed militants burning people alive, dragging women by their hair to a pickup truck and verifying the killing of people who were seated in their cars. At some point one of the militants came near themand smashed her elbow by jumping on it while saying “Allahu Akbar sharmuta” and shot towards the couple but missed.

  7. Several cars that were stuck in the traffic jam at the front of the exit also managed to reverse out and drive through a field east of the site, although most people abandoned their cars and fled by foot. One survivor stated in a filmed interview that she saw 200 to 300 armed militants in the field with some 50 to 60 closing in from each side. The militants, driving on motorbikes and in pick-up trucks, were shooting at the fleeing people. The survivor observed that “everyone who stayed alive did so because someone else got the bullet… we saw people running and just falling.” The Commission viewed and verified footage from the area described by the survivor and observed hundreds of fleeing festival-goers running in a field, with gunshots heard in the background.

  8. Many of those who survived the run through the open field were eventually picked up by fleeing cars, some cars packed with up to 8 people. Others managed to cross the field by foot and hide in the surrounding orchards and small ditches. Killing and causing bodily harm in public shelters

  9. The Commission investigated and verified four incidents of mass killings in public shelters along road 232. The four incidents took place in public shelters at two bus stops next to the kibbutz Re’im junction, on the western and eastern sides of the road, at the bus stop next to the kibbutz Be’eri junction and at the bus stop next to the kibbutz Alumim junction.

  10. A group composed of some 25 to 30 festival-goers arrived at the western Re’im shelter as early as 06:50.7 The shelter is distinguished by a mural of a blue bird, painted on its front. One survivor told the Commission that, unaware of the infiltration of militants, they tried to seek refuge from the rockets in the adjacent kibbutz Re’im but the gate was shut. They then decided to hide from the rockets in the nearby Re’im shelter located on road 232.

  11. According to the survivor, they first realised that militants had infiltrated and that they were in danger of an attack when they heard the militants approaching outside the shelter at around 07:50. Other reports indicate that they knew there was an infiltration but believed that the military presence in the area would deal with the threat. By 07:55, the space around the shelter was surrounded by militants. Verified dash-cam footage indicates that at 07:56 a Palestinian citizen of Israel who was hiding in the shelter was forcibly removed by militants, stripped to his waist, beaten and abused. His family reported to the media that he was later killed.

  12. At approximately 08:00, Hamas militants began throwing grenades into the shelter. According to dash-cam footage examined by the Commission, before the first grenade was thrown one of the militants shouted in Arabic “Don’t throw a bomb, we need to take them as prisoners”. The Commission’s investigation reveals that, after they threw the first grenade, a young man who was hiding inside ran out and was shot and killed. The man was visibly unarmed when he was shot while trying to escape and was likely the first person from the shelter who was killed. After that, the gunmen returned to the shelter and started shooting inside, following which they fired an RPG into the shelter. According to witness testimony, while the militants surrounded the shelter, several men inside who were sitting towards the front of it, including Aner Shapira, a soldier on leave, agreed that, if grenades were thrown into the shelter, they would grab them and throw them back out in the direction of the militants. The militants threw six more grenades into the shelter, most of which were thrown back out by Shapira. According to reports, the eighth grenade that he tried to grab and throw out exploded in his hand, killing him. Following his death, at least three other grenades were thrown into the shelter and exploded. According to a survivor of the attack, these were stun/shock and fragmentation grenades.

  13. Once the grenade attacks ended, Hamas militants entered the shelter and removed four survivors – three men and one woman. The three men were loaded onto a pickup truck. They were visibly seriously wounded from the grenade attack, including one whose hand had been severed. He is seen in the video with a self-fashioned tourniquet, and the bones in his severed arm are visible as he is pushed into the back of the pickup truck. Militants also abducted another Israeli man from another public shelter, who was also loaded into the truck, in addition to the three male abductees from the western Re’im shelter. Dashcam video footage indicates that this additional man was later killed as he tried to escape from the truck. Israeli sources state that he was killed that day. A video taken on the mobile phone of one of the attackers reveals that one woman was taken from the shelter. According to a survivor from the shelter the woman was released several minutes later for unknown reasons. Following the abduction, militants went back inside and shot indiscriminately at the persons who remained there. Reportedly only seven persons survived the attack, hiding under dead bodies and pretending to be dead.

  14. Some 30 to 40 persons hid in a shelter at Rei’m junction on the eastern side of the road. The shelter is distinguished by a mural of brown and green landscape, painted on the front. Among those killed in the shelter were sisters Norel and Noya Manzuri. Their mother an Israeli tv that she spoke to Norel at 07:00 and she confirmed that they were hiding in the shelter. The parents lost contact with their daughters at 07:39. One survivor, who had been part of the same group of friends as the sisters, stated that, once they saw militants approaching, they all tried to huddle by the back wall. A militant stood at the entrance to the shelter and fired a Kalashnikov indiscriminately into it. Then militants threw grenades into the shelter. A video taken a little after 07:00 depicts festival-goers sitting in the shelter in a relaxed manner in a spacious environment. Shortly after, more festival-goers joined them and the space became more cramped. According to another survivor, at around 07:40, someone in the shelter shouted, “the IDF is coming, there is an IDF vehicle here, the IDF is here!”. Moments later those hiding in the shelter were sprayed with bullets and people started screaming and falling on each other. After this initial attack, she recalled hearing someone shout “grenade!”, after which grenades were thrown into the shelter. Some people threw them out. She recalled that the attacks continued sporadically into the shelter over a period of several hours and, when some survivors tried to leave, she heard them being shot. According to the survivor, only seven of those who hid in the shelter survived.

  15. A group of 30 festival-goers and other civilians sought refuge in the Alumim public shelter, located north of kibbutz Be’eri along road 232. The shelter is distinguished by a mural of a bulldog and blue background, painted on its front. According to reports, a police car was parked adjacent to the shelter and a policeman urged passers-by to enter the shelter. A bike-rider, from Nir-Israel who was trying to head back home after the rocket attack started, reported in a media interview that he entered the Alumim shelter at the urging of a policeman. A few minutes after he enteredthe shelter, several vehicles of festival-goers arrived and filled the shelter, with some remaining close to the entrance due to the lack of space inside. According to the survivor, several minutes later, shooting was heard outside the shelter. The shooting became heavier and was suddenly directed at the people standing at the entrance of the shelter. Then a grenade was thrown in and exploded. Another grenade was thrown in, which reportedly did not explode. The survivor then exited the shelter, stepping over bodies, and met two police officers outside who told him to get in his vehicle and escape from the area. He found a working vehicle, loaded three injured persons into it and drove towards the Sa’ad intersection. The Commission was able to corroborate several of these details through video footage from the shelter. A 42-second video posted on an Israeli news site, verified by the Commission, shows the shelter with at least six civilian cars and one police car parked outside. In the next shot, from inside the shelter, gunshots are heard and someone says, “everyone calm down, it’s the IDF. It’s the IDF, it’s us”. In the next shot an unexploded grenade is visible in the right side of the screen and someone is heard shouting, “Go out! Go out!”. In the video people are shouting and at least one person is visibly injured.

  16. A second survivor of the Alumim shelter, who had escaped from the Nova festival with two other friends, confirmed in a media report that police stationed nearby advised people to enter the shelter and hide there. According to the survivor, after a few minutes of hiding, the shelter was hit by a rocket propelled grenade (RPG), which caused a wide panic, and some of the shelter collapsed. They then heard a lot of shooting. The survivor estimated that 10 to 20 persons were shooting at the shelter, killing many of those standing at the entrance. The militants then threw fragmentation grenades into the shelter. The survivor noted that, of the approximately 30 persons inside the shelter, only five or six survived. He survived by covering himself with other bodies and escaped when there was a lull in the shooting, some 40 minutes after he had entered. The survivor filmed the moment he emerged from the shelter. In the video his face is blood splattered. Several vehicles are seen directly outside the shelter and there are large blood stains on the pavement and bodies spilling out of the shelter.

  17. Approximately 20 to 30 persons hid in a shelter just outside Be’eri.8 The shelter is distinguished by a mural of a girl blowing bubbles, painted on its front wall. A survivor of the incident provided video testimony to an Israeli news channel, stating that she was hiding in the back of the shelter when militants arrived and threw a grenade into the shelter. She noted that one person jumped on the grenade to prevent it from exploding. Militants then shot several rounds inside the shelter. Many persons were killed in the shooting. The survivor, who was positioned in the back of the shelter, was shot in the knee. After this the militants left but returned intermittently during the next seven hours. Israeli Security Forces arrived at around 14:00 and began evacuating survivors. According to the survivor, only 12 persons survived the attack out of tens who hid in the shelter.

  18. Survivors recounted feeling terrified, losing sense of time and hoping for a swift end. In a recording from one of the shelters, people are heard shouting “they are killing us!!” and “grenade!”, followed by screams. In both the Alumim and western Re’im shelters, survivors stated that the ordeal provoked thoughts of the Holocaust. A survivor from Alumim said, “Now I know how it was in the Holocaust, how it was with the Jews”, while a survivor from western Re’im told the Commission, “I was sure that they were going to take me out and shoot us all in a row like in the Holocaust. I told myself - it will be ok, it will be quick. I will be dead soon.” The ordeal was especially hard for those who survived by hiding under bodies, as they did not know whether militants would return and when or if they would be rescued. One survivor from the eastern Re’im shelter said, “It was an ordeal. We prayed to die. Nobody wanted to remain alive in that place. We just wanted it to end quickly.”

  19. The Commission observes that the methods of killing across the shelters were similar: a group of militants arrives, encircles the shelter, attacks with grenades and then proceeds with indiscriminate shooting into the shelter, as well as shooting any persons who try to escape. This pattern suggests that the militants had tactical plans for this situation and standing operational instructions or procedures. The Alumim incident appears to have been shorter overall and included intervals between attacks in which some survivors were able to escape. In Alumin some police were present at various points in the attack, which perhaps also accounted for the intervals, since these police forces were actively engaged in trying to push back the attackers, allowing intervals for escape and evacuation of the wounded. In the western Re’im shelter, militants also abducted people following their attack. The Commission was unable to verify whether people were abducted from the eastern Re’im, Alumim or Be’eri shelters as well.

Sources

Footnotes

Section titled “Footnotes”

  1. https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/swords-of-iron-war-in-the-south-7-oct-2023 ↩

  2. This conclusion is reportedly based on maps found on detained or killed militans from the Nova site who carried maps of other locations. ↩

  3. See more in para 85 below. ↩

  4. Zaka is an organization of voluntary community emergency response teams in Israel, each operating in a police district. These organizations are not part of the Israeli Government but are recognized by the Israeli government. The organization’s full name is “ZAKA – Identification, Extraction and Rescue – True Kindness”. https://zakaworld.org/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwnv- vBhBdEiwABCYQA7A27v811M1M2ouBebzaX9WD_u6muw8MIX_i18- EbwYSY7E_J0NmFBoCKsgQAvD_BwE. See also section N of this report. ↩

  5. See more in paras 218-221 of this report. ↩

  6. https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/education/2024-04-11/ty-article-magazine/.premium/0000018e-a3b4-d24a-abbf-efbd224b0000. ↩

  7. The shelter is located on the western side of the road, accommodating drivers driving south from Be’eri to Re’im. ↩

  8. According to testimony of another woman who escaped from the Nova festival She stated that she passed the shelter and decided not to hide there as there were too many people already. ↩