Re'im music festival massacre

On 7 October 2023, the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas initiated a surprise attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. As part of the attack, 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded by Hamas at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, an open-air music festival during the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret near kibbutz Re'im. At least 40 hostages were also taken. This mass killing had the largest number of casualties out of a number of massacres targeting Israeli civilians in villages adjacent to the Gaza Strip, that occurred as part of the 7 October attack, alongside those at the moshavim of Netiv HaAsara, Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz and Holit.

At 6:30 a.m., which was around sunrise, rockets were noticed in the sky. Around 7:00 a.m., a siren warned of an incoming rocket attack, prompting festivalgoers to flee. Subsequently, armed militants, dressed in military attire and using motorcycles, trucks and powered paragliders, surrounded the festival grounds and indiscriminately fired on individuals attempting to escape. Attendees seeking refuge in nearby locations, such as bomb shelters, bushes, and orchards, were killed while in hiding. Those who reached the road and parking were trapped in a traffic jam as militants fired at vehicles. The militants executed some wounded individuals at point-blank range as they crouched on the ground.

The details of the whereabouts and condition of the hostages are not publicly known. The massacre at the festival was the largest terror attack in Israel's history, and the worst Israeli civilian massacre ever.

Gathering and festivities
Supernova Sukkot Gathering was a weekend-long outdoor trance music festival that began on 6 October 2023 and was produced by an organizer called Nova (also referred to as Tribe of Nova). It was the Israeli edition (pre-festival event) of Universo Paralello, a psychedelic trance festival started 23 years prior in Bahia, Brazil. It took place in the western Negev desert, approximately 5 km from the Gaza–Israel barrier, near kibbutz Re'im. The line-up included artists well known in the psychedelic trance scene, such as Astral Projection and Man with No Name. The organizers switched to the site only two days before, after the original location in southern Israel did not work out. Scheduled to coincide with Jewish holidays: the final day of Sukkot (6 October) and Simchat Torah (7 October), the rave was billed as a celebration of "friends, love and infinite freedom". The festival site had three stages, a camping zone, and an area with a bar and food. Attendees described the crowd as mostly consisting of Israelis of ages 20–40 from across the country. Attendance was reported to be 3,500 but figures vary. Security guards and police were present at the festival.

Hamas assault
The festival was one of the first targets of Hamas's surprise attack against Israel in the early morning hours of 7 October 2023. Israeli security services investigations have found it unlikely that Hamas had advanced knowledge of the festival, citing, among other evidence, that the festival had been planned to run until 6 October, and was only recently extended to 7 October. One attendee stated that after cutting the electricity, a group of approximately 50 Hamas gunmen arrived in vans and sprayed gunfire in all directions. Some of the Hamas gunmen who attacked the festival infiltrated Israel via motorised paragliders, arriving around 6:30 a.m.

As festival attendees fled in panic, jeeps filled with gunmen began firing at the escaping cars. Gunmen also blockaded roads. The open terrain left few places to hide. Many attendees who hid in the trees were murdered as militants methodically shot them. Others who hid in bushes and orchards managed to survive. Many of the attendees attempted to call for help through phone calls and WhatsApp messages however it took hours for emergency responders and military to reach the festival grounds. Some participants attempted to shelter inside public missile shelters, such as Aner Shapira and Hersch Goldberg-Polin who were credited with helping protect their shelter. Shapira was killed while attempting to throw out multiple grenades that were thrown into the shelter, and Goldberg-Polin was seriously wounded before the shelter was overrun by Hamas militants. Other attendees were able to hide behind an abandoned tank, some entered the tank and were reportedly able to load and fire the tank's machine gun after receiving instructions from a friend who was serving in the IDF. They were credited with helping fight off some of the militants before emergency and military personnel arrived.

The massacre took place during a rocket siren, signalling the firing of a barrage of rockets into Israel. Independently verified drone footage from the site showed dozens of scorched, burnt cars and skid marks. Footage of the attack, posted on a Telegram channel, included graphic depictions of murder and hostage-taking. Upon their return to Gaza City, Hamas members paraded the body of a woman in the back of a pickup truck – Shani Louk, a 22-year-old German-Israeli national. In one of the first viral videos to emerge from the attack, her body is shown clad only in underwear, while the gunmen are exclaiming "Allahu Akbar"; they were surrounded by cheering residents, some of whom spat on the body.

The Hamas militants kidnapped an initially unknown number of participants, with later reports defining the number of kidnapped people to be at 40; videos on social media showed them being seized. The abducted concertgoers were taken to the Gaza Strip, where some were filmed in Hamas propaganda videos. Relatives and friends of the missing searched for information about the missing. Those abducted by Hamas militants included British man Jake Marlowe, 26, who had been providing security, and 25-year-old Israeli woman Noa Argamani. Three dual Brazilian-Israeli nationals who had attended the festival were also missing.

During the massacre, according to survivor and emergency responder testimony, Hamas militants raped women attendees. According to survivor testimony released by Lahav 433, a young woman was gang raped by Hamas militants before being murdered. The testimony was published in Hebrew- and English-language Israeli news outlets. According to Haaretz police reporter Josh Breiner, ZAKA emergency response personnel found naked women with injuries and their genitals mutilated, with others found bound and naked below their waists. The Israel Defense Forces have not verified the claims.

Casualties
Photographs from the aftermath of the attack show dozens of bodies on the festival grounds, including a badly burned body bound by cable ties. ZAKA, Israel's volunteer community emergency response group, reported retrieving at least 260 bodies from the party grounds. The death toll was expected to rise, as other paramedic organisations also responded to the scene. The final figure communicated by police on 17 November was 364 dead, including 17 police officers, and 40 abducted.

One of those killed was Nathanel Young, a British man serving in the Israeli military. Lior Asulin, a retired football striker who had played for Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club, was also among those killed in the massacre. Journalists Shai Regev and Ayelet Arnin, who worked for the newspaper Maariv and public broadcaster Kan respectively, were also killed in the attack. The event's organisers, twins Osher Vaknin and Michael Vaknin, were killed in the attack as well.

Danielle Waldman, the youngest daughter of Israeli billionaire businessman Eyal Waldman, and her boyfriend Noam Shai were killed during the massacre. When Waldman received word that Danielle was missing, he flew back to Israel from Indonesia and tracked her location via her Apple Watch. Her body was found on 9 October.

Investigation
As of 14 October 2023, German authorities were aware of eight of its nationals having been taken as hostage in the overall events of 7 October 2023, including the case of Shani Louk, which gained great public interest. They opened a criminal probe against unknown Hamas members to investigate "belonging to a foreign terrorist group, hostage-taking and murder".

According to reports published on 17 November, the police concluded based on interrogations and their investigations that Hamas did not know about the festival beforehand but came across it by accident and decided to attack it. Israeli security authorities suggested that Hamas likely lacked advanced knowledge of the festival. Senior officials estimated that Hamas may have become aware of the event through drones or individuals parachuting, and subsequently directed their forces to the location using their communication system.

According to Haaretz journalist Josh Breiner, a police source said that a police investigation indicated an IDF helicopter which had fired on Hamas militants "apparently also hit some festival participants". A statement by the Israeli police said their investigation focused on police activity and not IDF activity, and thus did not provide any indication of civilian harm caused by IDF.

According to Haaretz, Israel's domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet and IDF military commanders discussed a possible threat to the festival just hours before the attack. However, no warnings were given to the festival's organisers.

Palestinian statements
Hamas initially denied the occurrence of the massacre and the killing of civilians. It later claimed that forces under Hamas never targeted civilians but that the massacre may have been carried out by independent groups of Gazan civilians after Hamas had defeated the Israeli forces in the region.

On 19 November, the Palestinian Authority (PA) denied that Hamas conducted the massacre in a statement sent to foreign ministries worldwide and to the United Nations. The PA stated that Israeli helicopters bombed civilians after the Hannibal Directive was activated, though the directive is claimed by Israel to have been canceled in 2016. The U.S. National Security Council spokesman says that the PA later said this was not its official position.

Aftermath
In response to this massacre, as well as other massacres and attacks in what Hamas called "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood", Israel formally declared war on Hamas and initiated its counteroffensive, named "Operation Swords of Iron".

Family members of the victims of the festival and the Psyduck festival together formed the Party Youth Forum to demand the establishment of a third-party investigation committee, which would potentially identify any negligence leading up to the 7 October attacks. On 1 January 2024, 42 survivors of the massacre filed a lawsuit seeking 200 million NIS in damages from the IDF, Shin Bet and the Israel Police.

Shortly after the attack spaces were created to allow survivors and victims' families to reflect and heal from the attack, with a variety of treatments provided to help them process the mental trauma. Items recovered from the festivals grounds that were not claimed or identified, were brought to another similar event in the Sdot Yam kibbutz.

In late January 2024, a memorial on the site had been opened to tourists, family, and friends of victims to learn about the attack, the victims, and survivors and pay tribute to them. That same month, the families of victims planted trees inside the area of the festival to commemorate the deceased victims.

During a State Audit Commission on the treatment of survivors of the 7 October attacks at the Knesset in April 2024, a survivor spoke out about the psychological damage the attack had caused. He indicated that many survivors were forcibly hospitalized due to psychological state, could not get out of bed, and that there had been some 50 suicides by survivors between October 2023 and April 2024. The Israeli Ministry of Health has reported that they cannot confirm the claim of suicides made by the survivor.

Compensation for survivors
Bituah Leumi, the national social security agency of Israel, formally recognised the trauma and damage suffered by the survivors of the massacre. Survivors can submit claims for recognition as victims of work-related injuries and as casualties of hostile actions. Individuals are eligible for various privileges, including financial aid, medical and psychological assistance, legal representation, and compensation for any property losses or damages.

Rescue operations
On 8 June 2024, a rescue operation carried out by Yamam, the Shin Bet and Israel Defense Forces in the Nuseirat refugee camp successfully rescued four Israelis—Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan, and Andrey Kozlov—who had been kidnapped from the music festival. The operation was later named Operation Arnon in honor of a Yamam officer who was killed during the action. 

Depiction in media
On October 9, two days after the massacre, Irish rock band U2 paid tribute to the victims during a Las Vegas concert by performing "Pride (In the Name of Love)" with modified lyrics to reference the massacre. Five Israeli DJs, including Skazi, performed a set during a memorial on 28 November 2023, at the site of the festival. Film makers Reinhardt Beetz, Duki Dror and Danna Stern made a documentary titled Supernova: The Music Festival Massacre.

On December 6, a documentary titled #Nova was aired on Yes Docu, recreating the events of the massacre. The documentary uses videos taken on site, phone call recordings and WhatsApp conversations. As a precedent, Yes announced that it would allow any television channel and broadcaster to show the film for free, and also uploaded the full film to its official YouTube channel. Supernova: Music Festival Massacre is another documentary about the massacre. Created by Yossi Bloch, Noam Pinchas, and Duki Dror, the documentary narrates the experiences of survivors through interviews and real-time video footage. It also incorporates a limited amount of video captured by the perpetrators. It has been acquired by broadcasters in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, and other countries worldwide. In December 2023, activists, including producers of the festival, organised the "6:29" installation at Expo Tel Aviv, which recreates the massacre site in detail. It was one of the first physical memorials of the 7 October attacks. The exhibit, named for the minute the music at the festival ceased in response to sirens of incoming rockets, included a reconstructed dance floor, incinerated cars, bullet-ridden portable toilets, piles of personal items, and tributes to the victims.

On 5 February 2024, the 66th Annual Grammy Awards paid tribute to the victims of the massacre. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. led the tribute, delivering eulogies, while a string quartet composed of musicians from Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab backgrounds provided musical accompaniment.

In March 2024, it was reported that the BBC will co-produce and broadcast a documentary titled "We Will Dance Again" about the festival massacre.

In May 2024, the "Nova Music Festival exhibition" was opened in New York City. The exhibition, dedicated to the survivors of the massacre, features tents, blankets, personal objects, and mobile phones displaying videos recorded during the attack. On 10 June 2024, anti-Israel protesters organized by the Within Our Lifetime organization arrived at the exhibition, setting off flares, flying flags of Hamas and Hezbollah, and slogans such as "Long live October 7".