Eldad Adar, father of Gili Hadar who was murdered at the Nova Music Festival on October 7, recounted his attempts to rescue his daughter and the investigation into her death as part of the hostages and bereaved families' initiative to launch an independent commission on inquiry into Hamas' attack amid the government's hesitance to carry one out.
He recounted the events of October 7, saying, "There were two main locations where people hid at the festival, one of them being a dumpster. Amid the chaos, partygoers ran, jumped inside and hid under the garbage one on top of the other. They held out until 11:30 a.m. because they were inside a closed container and no one could see them."
Adar expressed his frustration about the lack of information regarding the massacre at the bar where his daughter had hidden. "We have no documentation of the massacre that happened there. A reservist IDF soldier entered the party area with a weapon drawn and a camera. His documentation is historically important, especially for us as parents who care deeply about it."
He said it took nearly a week before they received confirmation of Gili's death. He expressed his pain over the lack of communication from local authorities. "Since then and until now, we're nothing as far as the 'State of Israel' is concerned. No official has come to properly explain to us to sit with us, to ask us anything. There's no State of Israel in the story of Gili's murder."
Yoram Yehudai, the father of Ron Yehudai, added his own testimony, saying, "You mentioned that everything was over at the festival by around 10:00-11:00 a.m. That's not true —nothing was over in there. My son Ron was murdered at 11:47 a.m."
Yehudai described his son's final moments, saying, "Ron was texting us until 11:39 am. He replied to me at 11:39, saying, 'It'll be okay, love you,' with a yellow heart and 'we'll keep in touch.' By 11:54 a.m., he was already gone. In hindsight, he was trying to protect us by not telling us the truth. You could say we lost Ron live, in real-time."
He added, "My son Ron was murdered in the yellow container located near the festival's boundaries. Ron was killed at 11:47 a.m., a very late hour by all accounts. A lone terrorist entered and shot all of the kids inside. There were 16 inside the container — four girls were injured, two weren't hurt, and nine were murdered."
"We have many videos documenting what happened inside the container during all those hours. Disturbing, horrific videos. At exactly 11:47 a.m., a lone terrorist entered and shot the young people inside the container," he added.
"I want to know if the person who murdered my son fled to Gaza, was killed or is in captivity. I want to know, to have closure. I don’t even know when Ron’s body was recovered," he said.