Re'im music festival massacre

Re'im music festival massacre
On 7 October 2023, Hamas militants initiated a surprise invasion of Israel from the Gaza Strip and massacred 270 civilians, injured a greater number, and took an unknown number of hostages at the "Supernova Sukkot Gathering", an open-air psychedelic trance music festival celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot near kibbutz Re'im. This was the largest terror attack in Israel's history, and the worst Israeli civilian massacre ever. It was part of Hamas attack on Israel, which included massacres of hundreds of civilians in the nearby communities of Netiv HaAsara, Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, Holit at the start of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war.
At 6:30 am around sunrise, rockets were noticed in the sky. Around 7 am, a siren warned of an incoming rocket attack, prompting festivalgoers to flee. Subsequently, armed militants, dressed in military attire and using motorcycles, trucks and 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.
Gathering and festivities
Supernova Sukkot Gathering was a weekend-long outdoor trance music festival that began on 6 October 2023. It took place in the western Negev desert, approximately from the Gaza–Israel barrier, near kibbutz Re'im. 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 psytrance festival started 23 years prior in Bahia, Brazil. The line-up included artists well-known in the psytrance 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 musical festival was one of the first targets of Hamas' surprise attack against Israel in the early morning hours of 7 October 2023. It is not known whether Hamas knew beforehand that the festival was taking place there or whether they heard the music and came across it by chance. 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 motorized paragliders, arriving around 6:30 am.
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. The massacre took place amid a rocket siren, signaling a barrage of rockets fired into Israel. Independently verified drone footage of 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.
The Hamas militants kidnapped an unknown number of participants; videos on social media showed them being seized. The abducted concertgoers were taken to Gaza, where some were filmed in Hamas propaganda videos. Relatives and friends of the missing searched for information about the missing. Those apparently abducted by Hamas included Shani Louk – a 22-year-old German-Israeli dual citizen, a British man, and a 25-year-old Chinese-Israeli woman. Three dual Brazilian-Israeli nationals who had attended the festival were also missing.
Witnesses have reported that some of the captured women have been raped. The Israel Defense Forces have not verified the claims. Testimonies were also provided by eyewitnesses who survived the massacre.
Casualties
Photographs from the aftermath of the attack show dozens of bodies at 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 organizations also responded to the scene.
One of those killed was 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 Ma'ariv newspaper and KAN broadcaster respectively, were also killed in the attack. The event's organizers, Osher Vaknin and his twin Michael Vaknin, were killed in the attack.
Investigation
As of 14 October 2023, German authorities are aware of eight of its nationals being taken as hostage in the overall events of 7 October 2023, including the case of Shani Louk, which had gained public interest. They opened a criminal probe against unknown Hamas members to investigate "belonging to a foreign terrorist group, hostage-taking and murder".
Response
Hamas denied that the attack was against civilians and said that it viewed the victims as "soldiers". Later Hamas changed their stance claiming that forces under Hamas never targeted civilians but the massacre was carried out by independent groups of Gazan civilians after Hamas had defeated the Israeli forces in the region. Later still Hamas denied that any massacre had taken place at the festival.
In response to this massacre, as well as other massacres and attacks in Operation Aqsa Flood, Israel declared a formal war on Hamas and began Operation Iron Sword.
See also
Outline of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
Battle of Re'im, a 2023 Hamas attack on an Israeli military base as part of the same offensive
Dolphinarium discotheque massacre, a 2001 Hamas attack in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv
Coastal Road massacre
List of massacres in Israel
List of events named massacres
List of terrorist incidents in 2023
Palestinian terrorism
Death and eulogy of Ro'i Rothberg
Notes
References
External links
Official festival website
Antisemitic attacks and incidents
Massacres during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
2023 mass shootings in Asia
Attacks on music venues
Cross-border operations
Hamas attacks
Terrorist attacks attributed to Palestinian militant groups
21st-century mass murder in Israel
Kidnappings in Israel
October 2023 crimes in Asia
October 2023 events in Israel
Mass kidnappings of the 2020s
Massacres in Israel during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Mass shootings in Israel
Sukkot
Islamic terrorist incidents in 2023
Rave
Palestinian war crimes
Music festival massacre