Grief tourism: Nova music festival site hit by Hamas draws tourists

Some tourists come on visits organized by civil society groups, others come independently to pay tribute to those killed at the Nova festival.

People visit the site of the Nova music festival massacre, in Re'im, near the Israeli-Gaza border, December 31, 2023 (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
People visit the site of the Nova music festival massacre, in Re'im, near the Israeli-Gaza border, December 31, 2023
(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

At the site of the bloodiest incident in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, foreigners and Israelis walk between placards that carry the names and photos of the dead, killed at an open-air rave.

Some take videos and pictures on their mobile phones, others weep.

"It's very important to come and see with your own eyes," said Samantha Malcar, from Canada. "You see all these posters of real faces. And you see the destruction. You see these were real people who lost their lives just for coming to a party."

Thousands of young people were partying in the dawn hours of Oct. 7 when the gunmen swept in from Gaza.

 Posters of those murdered or kidnapped at the site of the Nova music festival. (credit: Aaron Poris/The Media Line)
Posters of those murdered or kidnapped at the site of the Nova music festival. (credit: Aaron Poris/The Media Line)

According to authorities, 364 people were shot, bludgeoned, or burned to death and some were sexually assaulted at the Nova festival in a stretch of tree-dotted brush near Kibbutz Re'im. Around 40 were taken hostage back to Gaza, 5 km (2 miles) away.

Israeli grief tourism

Some tourists come on visits organized by civil society groups, others come independently to pay tribute to those killed at the Nova festival.

It was the single most deadly incident in a shock cross-border assault by Hamas in which 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage.

Israel's subsequent war aimed at eliminating the militant group that rules Gaza has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, health authorities in the enclave say.