Memorial Event for the Murdered of the Nova Party Community / Shlomi Gabbay
In Sdot Yam near Caesarea, the producers of the Nova Festival, author of "A Little for the Soul", held an official event this evening (Saturday) in memory of the hundreds murdered in the festival in the south. "It was a festival to celebrate love and freedom and ended with a murderous terrorist attack," organizers said with drooping faces at a pre-ceremony press conference.
The organizers of the party, Omri Sassi and Nimrod Arnin, spoke to the media for the first time since the massacre and spoke about the shock, the fear and terror, the long wait for the forces that did not arrive, and their improvised organization to rescue hundreds of people. "Since then, the incident has not ended for us," they said.
The two organizers also suffered personal bereavement at the event. Nimrod Arnin lost his sister Eilat, and Omri Sassi lost four relatives. "Ayelet, my little sister, was a media person who was expected to be big, and she won't get to fulfill them," Arnin said. Sassi told of his uncle who was murdered, as well as his cousin, who was five months pregnant, and her husband. After the memorial service, there was a lighting display with hundreds of lanterns for the sky and a performance by Osher Cohen and Yishai Ribo.
"We will return to dancing and this will be our victory", Festival organizers / Shlomi Gabbay
Yishai Ribo, performing in memory of the victims of the Nova party / Shlomi Gabbay
"We went through something we had no control over, we will take care of everyone and help everyone," promised the producers, who since the day of the event have also operated an aid complex for surviving partygoers. We'll get back to dancing and that will be our victory."
Nimrod Arnin and Omri Sassi spoke about the company they founded two and a half years ago, "with the aim of uniting young people who want to dance" and how "we slowly became a global movement and began collaborations with productions and brands from abroad, where our event is located. A supernova event, an international event, in collaboration with a trance production from South America. The disaster struck us and it is a heavy price. That's where the music stopped."
A healing space for survivors of the Nova massacre, Ronit Farm/Niv Aharonson
"The Nuba community is the community that suffered the most murders," the organizers said of the production, which was held in cooperation with a Brazilian production company. At some point, at the height of the event, at sunrise, at the happiest and deepest moment of the day, terrorists erupted, launched missile attacks and started murdering people." The organizers stressed that the event was approved by all security agencies - military and police. The organizers also said that there were 27 armed and paid police officers at the event, plus a team of 80 security guards.
The organizers began to recreate the unfolding of events on that terrible Saturday. At first, they said, there was a report about a suspected infiltration of the terrorists into Route 232, and the police asked to evacuate the incident. However, a large number of terrorists arrived at the scene and managed to eliminate the police checkpoints. The terrorists then entered the front parking area and the command posts. "The only way was to go east, we started evacuating a crowd with the police to a hammer area," they said, "The people who remained at the scene were murdered. Groups of people tried to hide in the area of the incident, but the terrorists went through all the toilets and murdered them all."
It wasn't until 10:40 a.m., four hours after the attack began, that the first military force arrived."
"I personally stayed in the area until I couldn't," Sassi said painfully, "the terrorists came to the command post area and entered the area of the incident, I had to extricate myself, while I was getting fired, I ran to the area of the incident, crossed the area and got into the car." At that point, Sassi said, the terrorists began chasing them.
"We realized we had to get out, my friend who was sitting in front was killed and my partner was injured in both legs. We continued towards Re'im, where I saw dozens of bodies on the road with gunshot and burned vehicles," he said, "We saw an IDF tank and a group of people around the tank, we drove towards the tank and then a terrorist came out and fired an RPG at the patrol car. We crossed the route, got shot, drove another kilometer, had a good time, treated the critically wounded, waited for rescue, were rescued from here. We stayed there to take care of and operate."
"We Will Dance Again", the memorial event for the victims of the Nova./Shlomi Gabbay
To the question of Walla! As for the location of a mass event in such close proximity to such a hostile border, the organizers said there was a risk everywhere in the country. They repeated the security arrangements at the site, the license given to them by the police, and the approval of a police officer who was present to open it. "The event is fully licensed at this location. No warning was given to us during the night. We were hit very badly. Dozens of vans arrived and managed to eliminate roadblocks. The first police force arrived at 10:40 A.M. I kept calling and they kept telling me, 'We're on our way to you.' They told while describing the actions they improvised in the meantime, with the police officers and security guards who were there for their safety," he said.
The memorial event was also attended by Ron's father, an Air Force officer who was murdered at the festival. The father spoke about his daughter's personal development during her time in the Nuba community, and also spoke about the production's care for the families after the disaster. "We dealt with them. They didn't run away, they didn't disappear. You looked us in the eye. This is in contrast to other elements in the country," he said.
"It is important to note that we as a production from here will not stop, we will not stop, we will overcome the event because we have no choice and we will continue to engage in the occupation of our lives, to make people happy," Nova producers said. On the memorial stage set was written in neon colors - Dance We Will Again, We Will Dance Again.
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