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Eighteen months after the October 7 massacre at the Nova music festival, the deadly attack remains a deep wound in the heart of Israeli society. Footage captured by an IDF soldier in the aftermath of the attack serves as a harrowing reminder of the losses Israel continues to mourn ahead of Memorial Day.
The video, recorded on a body camera worn by a soldier who arrived on site hours after the massacre began, reveals the chaos, horror and hopelessness that awaited first responders. With rifle raised and flanked by other troops, the soldier moves cautiously through the debris-strewn festival grounds, calling out into the silence.
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Extremely graphic footage from a police officer's bodycam shows his arrival at the Nova festival after the massacre, searching for survivors
“I’m opening the gate, cover me,” he says, voice tense and clipped, the words captured by the camera’s audio. “Police, IDF,” he calls repeatedly.
"We need to spread out across the site again, maybe check under the stage," he instructs his comrades. His voice cracks as he shouts: "Are there any wounded? Anyone?"
As he advances, the grim reality becomes clear. "I have fatalities here. One, two, three, four, five dead," he says, counting the bodies. "A female police officer is dead. Oh God. Everyone at the stage is dead."
He pleads into the empty air: "Is anyone alive? Anyone who can give a sign of life? Anyone, please?" But no response comes.
More than 370 people were murdered at the festival on Oct. 7, 2023, and dozens were abducted. Survivors who fled the site found shelter in nearby communities like Moshav Patish, where residents helped the wounded and facilitated contact with families. Many survivors hid for hours in fields before being rescued by reservists, volunteers and local civilians.
In the weeks and months since, stories of loss, courage and survival have emerged in painstaking detail. Families have buried their children. Communities have built new sections in their cemeteries.
On Memorial Day, the voice from that body camera echoes across time: not as a military report, but as a cry for life in the face of death. A voice that still asks, 18 months later: Is anyone alive?