‘Some days I feel I’m dead’: Nova music festival survivor describes the horrors of October 7 one year on

The sun was just rising on October 7 when waves of Hamas gunmen burst through the security fence that separates Israel from Gaza.

Less than 5km from the border, around 3,500 partygoers were dancing their way into dawn at Nova – an open-air trance festival held in the Negev desert near Kibbutz Re’im.

Among them was Kfir. In an exclusive interview with GB News, the 23-year-old recounts the tragic events as they unfolded.

He spoke a day after the London screening of Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again – a documentary that provides a harrowing glimpse of Hamas’ surprise attack on the music festival.

Kfir, a softly-spoken man, explained: “I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a trance festival, but it’s without your suit, it’s without everything. It’s only your eyes, soul and who you really are. And the music will leave you with no choice but to dance and not give a s**t about who is looking at you and who is around you. It doesn’t matter if you are Jewish or Muslim, fat or skinny – if you’re weird or not. It’s only acceptance.”

Kfir recalls seeing a father in the crowd with his disabled daughter, who was in a wheelchair.

“I approached them and told the dad: ‘You’re such a great guy. To take your daughter to a trance festival is so great.'”

The sight moved Kfir to tears.

His passion for the trance scene and the acceptance that it brings jars with the evil that was visited upon him and his fellow festival goers on October 7.

It was 6.30am and the overnight rave was approaching its climax.

Kfir was celebrating with a big group of friends.

“Everybody was smiling. The vibe was amazing,” he recalled.

Suddenly, the sound of rocket fire pierced through the music. Many of the revellers thought the streaks of light in the sky were fireworks at first, others were tripping and thought nothing of it.

Then came the sirens and the music stopped.

Hamas had launched an unprecedented and unprovoked attack on southern Israel by land and air. Thousands of rockets started raining down over the festival and on the horizon, armed terrorists could be seen descending from the sky on motorised paragliders.

The crowd at the festival split in every direction. Euphoria was replaced with blind panic.

“It was horrible. I felt a lot of responsibility to try to do my best. A lot of pressure to help others,” Kfir said.

He then found his friends. “I became more calm and felt like a voice was telling me: ‘Everything is okay, breathe.’ I have a very strong belief in my life. I started to think more clearly.”

Kfir attributes his equanimity partly to his medical background, spiritual convictions, and confidence in the Israeli army.

“I had a strong belief in my army, that they were all around the border,” he told GB News.

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Thousands of people started sprinting towards parked cars but the 23-year-old told his friends to wait it out until the rockets “become less and less”.

He ran to a nearby valley with his friends and began playing Bob Marley, which offered respite from the chaos.

That’s when the shooting started. Kfir could hear gunfire in the distance but he wasn’t sure where it was coming from.

Two minutes later, a person with a black shirt ran over to Kafir and his friends. He had a gun in his hand. He said: “There are a lot of terrorists here. Get out. Now.”

Unbeknownst to Kfir and the other revellers, Hamas gunmen had crossed over the border in jeeps, pick-up trucks and on motorbikes and had blocked off the road to the festival from the north and the south before storming the site on foot.

The 23-year-old and his friends left the valley as fast as they could. He passed people dancing on their cars as they raced through the festival site.

“They were on drugs and didn’t understand what was happening,” he said. Kfir approached them and stopped the music in a desperate attempt to convince them to come but his friend told him: “You cannot be the hero right now. We need you. I need you. If they don’t want to listen, they don’t want to listen. Let’s go.”

He then jumped into a vehicle with his friends and headed to the exit but they were barely moving because so many cars were backed up. They were blocked in.

Cars riddled with bullets lined either side of the queue. It was at that point that he realised he had to get out.

People were fleeing across fields and Kfir darted towards a nearby valley.

“If the gunshots are coming from here, we are below it,” he thought to himself.

A voice told him to keep running. He ran over the crest of a hill.

“I was very exposed. I ran so fast to the open valley. So fast that my feet couldn’t touch the ground,” he told GB News.

Bullets whizzed by him as he ran.

“Suddenly I see a car. A busted-up Chevrolet cruise. There’s a million people inside. I approach them and they say: ‘Get in. Get in!'”

Kfir stuck his leg inside the driver’s window. Half his body was outside the car.

Someone was doing the same thing on the other side of the car.

“He grabbed my hand, there’s someone else on the roof and he grabbed my hand and the car is moving, the window is jamming into my ass, it hurts like hell.”

Kfir added: “It was time to trust God.”

Eventually, the terrain became too rugged for the vehicle. He had to do the rest on foot. After trudging through fields in scorching heat he was eventually reunited with his friends.

Kfir made it out alive but many of his friends didn’t.

The violence he saw that day has left a “scar”, he says.

“The father and his wheelchair-bound daughter were brutally murdered,” he added, seething with anger.

Ruth Peret’s wheelchair was found near the Gaza border. Days later, the burnt bodies of Ruth, 17, and her father, Erick, were found embracing each other.

Kfir is still processing what he witnessed and what it means. Many questions remain unanswered.

“To do this to people in the peak of their lives, who are celebrating only love and peace, and to do it without any possibility of fighting for themselves. With that animal spirit. We’re living in a different world. Pure hate like that takes decades of brainwashing.”

He also cannot comprehend how Hamas was able to carry out its rampage for hours on end with little resistance.

“I could have escaped earlier but I thought the Israeli Air Force or someone would come and do something. Would see where the rockets were coming from and come and help us. It doesn’t make sense. I’m not the chief of the army but I have a lot of questions that I’m asking myself every day.”

The families of the victims of Nova have similar questions and are also demanding answers.

One group of survivors is suing the Israeli security services for failing to anticipate and stop the massacre.

Israel’s National Security Advisor has since said that authorities had “underestimated Hamas”. Its Army has vowed to conduct a “detailed and in-depth investigation”.

One year on, Kfir is less concerned with the politics of the war and more with the inhumanity of that day.

“I’m just talking about what is love and what is evil and how life is tragic,” adding: “Some days I feel that I’m dead but I’m alive. A lot of thoughts running in your head and imagination you don’t want. But it’s it’s real. It’s with you.”

Of the 3,500 partygoers who attended the Nova music festival that day, 364 were murdered, and 44 others were taken hostage.

A total of 253 hostages were taken and more than 1,200 people were murdered near the border on October 7th.

Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now