“I’ve still been living the trauma every day for over a year,” laments Amit Musaei, his throat tight. On October 7, 2023, Amit, a 40-year-old tour guide and father of two young girls, survived the massacre of Hamas terrorists who burst into southern Israel in their thousands, with one goal: to kill and kidnap as many Israelis as possible. Originally from Holon, Amit had come with his friends to have fun at the Nova Festival located in Reim, a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip. After several hours of carefree partying, Amit went from joy to nightmare in a split second.
At 6:29 a.m. on October 7, the first rocket alerts sounded in the towns around Gaza. Amit and three of his friends miraculously manage to leave the festival in their vehicle and flee amidst the sound of heavy gunfire from the terrorists and the constant sirens. With immense composure, Amit drives mindlessly through the fields and manages to reach Highway 232. He and his friends, shocked and traumatized, realize that they have just escaped a tragedy. "It was chaotic and completely surreal," Amit describes.
A year later, Amit has not yet recovered. The wounds he carries within him are palpable in every sentence he utters.
Escaping Death
"On the spot, I quickly understood that the situation was unusual and extremely serious; despite my car problems, we managed to quickly flee the area where the terrorists were committing the unthinkable. I couldn't drive north because the roads were crowded, but I headed south and we were able to hide in the kitchen of the Aroma restaurant at the Ourim crossroads, not far from Reim. We stayed there for several hours before going to the dining room of a nearby kibbutz. It was so stressful, I drove slaloming between the rocket fire and the terrorists. I only arrived home in Holon around 6:30 p.m.," says Amit, who recalls the drama with emotion.
Amit and three of his friends were very lucky to survive, but three of their closest friends were murdered. Adir and Shiraz Tamam, as well as Céline Ben David, a French-Israeli, were supposed to join them in the early morning in Nova, without knowing that they would die in this party venue that hosted thousands of festival-goers.
"They arrived around 6:45 am under the rockets and hid in shelters near the entrance to Kibbutz Mefalsim. At 7:15 am, we spoke to them for the last time. Shiraz told us that they were surrounded by terrorists and we never heard from them again. We only found out what had happened to them two days later, because someone who was with them in the shelter told us," explains Amit, devastated.
The terrorists killed everyone who got in their way at the entrance to Mefalsim, about fifty people, and threw a grenade into the shelter where Amit’s friends were. Shiraz was killed instantly while her husband Adir was shot dead as he tried to get out of the shelter. Céline, seriously injured, died shortly after, but her death was not announced until a week later.
“We moved heaven and earth to find Céline who had been missing for several days, we wanted to believe that she would survive but unfortunately we learned of her death. We were totally devastated,” says Amit.
Adir and Shiraz were Amit’s best friends and neighbors in Holon. They were the parents of two little girls who are best friends with his daughters, they grew up together. Céline was a friend and work colleague of Shiraz, they worked as secretaries in a law firm in Tel Aviv. Céline came to Nova to celebrate the end of her maternity leave, leaving behind her husband Ido and her daughter Elly, who was six months old at the time.
"Today, I still feel very bad, I am still experiencing what happened in a very hard way, I am depressed. Because of this personal trauma, my family is also impacted, my daughters and my wife knew Adir and Shiraz well and it affects them enormously on a daily basis. We are having a hard time digesting the situation," says Amit.
"In the days following October 7, I wanted everyone to know my story and those of my friends, so I was interviewed by major media including CNN, CBS, Fox, European, Australian and African media. I showed them excerpts from videos that I myself shot in the heat of the moment, while we were hiding or on the road, but I keep the films in their entirety to myself. The whole world must know what we have been through and what the people of Israel have been experiencing every day for months," he continues.
After the shivas of Adir, Shiraz and Céline, Amir fell into depression, he no longer left his house and began therapy on Zoom. The daily rocket alerts over the center of the country, and what he experienced in Nova plunged him into immense suffering. His therapist advised him to write his story to allow him to move forward and overcome his deep sadness, but Amit decided to organize virtual tours, with many photos and videos to tell his story.
Storytelling to Heal
During the coronavirus period, Amit found himself unemployed and developed his online tour business, so he chose to continue this path with his tragic story in Nova.
“I developed my online tours with panoramic photos, but also the images of the surveillance cameras of the places where I hid in the kitchen of Aroma. I also tell the stories of my friends who were not lucky enough to survive unfortunately and also the way I deal with my trauma. On Zoom, I have recounted the facts a lot to the Jewish and non-Jewish communities in America and elsewhere. I have also added a geopolitical dimension so that people understand more how we got to this point. I think it is essential to share the stories of survivors as much as possible, because our testimonies are indisputable proof of the horror committed by these monsters. It is our duty to share and reveal the magnitude of the tragedy for those who are no longer here to do so,” says Amit.
Several months later, Amit finally found the courage to leave his house and is gradually resuming a semblance of normal life. Around April, he began to set up field tours in localities near Gaza, where he notably returns to the places that have marked him forever.
"It took me a while to return to the site, but with the help of my friends and tourists, I found the strength to reclaim the places that now symbolize death. Today, when I am not out in the field, that is when bad thoughts resurface, I need to always be in action so as not to sink," concludes Amit.
Amit gives private tours but also in small groups. To register, you can contact him by phone at +972506793438 or by email: amit.musaei@gmail.com.
Caroline Haïat
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