Israeli psytrance festival attacked by Hamas shares new statement

Tribe Of Nova, the events company behind the Israel’s Supernova psytrance festival which was targeted by Hamas earlier this month, has shared a new statement in the wake of the attack.

In the statement, shared on Saturday October 14, the organisers offer “sincere and heartfelt condolences to all the families, friends, partners and couples who have lost their loved ones or have been affected by the tragic events that unfolded, following that magic night and that turned into an exceedingly heavy morning.

“What was planned to be the happiest and largest electronic music festival of the Nova Tribe has turned into a scene of unspeakable tragedy, an inhumane war crime, an unprecedented violation of the most basic human values.

“This is the epitome of pure and unbridled evil, the horrifying and senseless murder of countless innocent angels, whose only ‘crime’ was being Jewish and living in Israel.”

After the attack, which began at around 6:30AM on the morning of October 7, Israeli rescue agency Zaka confirmed that the bodies of 260 people had been recovered from the festival site, around three miles from the Gaza-Israel barrier, a border fence Israel has first constructed around the Palestinian territory of Gaza in 1994 and has since reinforced.

A reported 199 people are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

Tribe Of Nova’s statement also notes: “At this moment, our production team is focused on providing the right and extensive emotional and mental support to everyone involved. This is the most important thing in this moment.

“We are working tirelessly, day and night, conducting search and rescue operations, helping identify the victims and updating their families. Searching for those located in the disaster area, or other locations, recovering equipment from the site and its surroundings and, above all, ensuring the security of Israel.

“This is our sole goal, and we will stand behind it and fulfil it to the best of our abilities. We will not stop.”

It also states: “We send infinite love and a massive embrace to all Tribe of Nova members and all around Israeli civilians, the injured, the affected and the families of the deceased and the missing.”

You can read the full statement here.

The attack on the festival was part of a wider Hamas operation attacking Israel, with the Israel Defence Force announcing that the death toll in Israel is now more than 1,400 people, along with 199 people being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “The IDF is working around the clock to return the abductees.”

After the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by declaring Israel is “at war” and vowing to “demolish Hamas”.

Israel has been bombarding the Gaza Strip, the densely populated Palestinian territory governed by Hamas which borders Israel and Egypt, with air strikes since October 7, dropping more than 6,000 bombs during the first six days — more than the US-led coalition dropped on ISIS in a month at the height of their bombing campaign in August 2017.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has indicated his view that all people living in the Gaza Strip, which is home to more than 2 million people, are responsibile for Hamas’ attack.

He said: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.”

Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 2,750 Palestinian people, including at least 724 children, and wounded 9,600 more, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, who also accused the Israeli military of “direct targeting of medical staff and their families.”

The bombing has destroyed 11 mosques and 2,835 homes, as well as damaging 90 schools and damaging almost 1,800 more homes beyond repair, according to the UN. As of Sunday, the Palestininian civil defense said more than 1,000 people are missing under the rubble.

Israel has also besieged Gaza, blocking food, electricity, fuel, medicine and water from accessing the territory.

“We are putting a complete siege on Gaza … No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed,” said Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. No humanitarian aid or supplies have been allowed into Gaza for a week, with the UN in negotiations to get first aid to Gaza.

The UN has said that water has now become a “matter of life and death” for people in the Gaza Strip, with clean water running out and Gaza’s only power station now out of fuel.

Hamas has threatened to kill Israeli hostages if the siege and bombing of civilian areas continues without warning.

More than 1 million people have been displaced by the Israeli attack on Gaza, after Israel warned civilians to evacuate from northern Gaza ahead of an expected ground invasion.

The UN has warned that evacuating nearly half of Gaza’s crowded population would be “impossible” and would have “devastating humanitarian consequences”, while US president Joe Biden has said that Israeli occupation of Gaza would be a “big mistake”.

Biden added that he believes Hamas must be eliminated, but that “there needs to be a Palestinian authority. There needs to be a path to a Palestinian state.”

US secretary of state Anthony Blinken has travelled to Israel on a diplomatic trip urging restraint in Israel’s offensive to limit the death toll.

Blinken said the US stands with the Israeli government and that “Israel has the right, indeed it has an obligation, to defend itself”, while also adding Israel must show its “shared values for human life and human dignity”.

Thousands of people have gathered at Gaza’s southern Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which is currently closed, hoping to leave Gaza. It is expected that the border will be opened to allow aid to enter Gaza and dual nationals to leave.

There are fears that the wider region could also become increasingly destablised, with Iran warning Israel of regional escalation if the Gaza offensive continues.

Israel has begun evacuating residents living near the Lebanon border on the northern end of the country, the opposite site to Gaza, after clashes with the Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group Hezbollah.

Israel’s defence minister has said the country has no interest in waging war against Hezbollah, but the IDF has warned it will “destroy” Lebanon if Hezbollah enters the war.

The modern day Israel-Palestine conflict dates back decades, with many considering the starting point as the 1947 United Nations’ vote by British mandate to partition the land of Palestine into two states – one Jewish, one Arab – following the violence against Jewish people in Europe during the Second World War and Holocaust. The partition was not accepted by Palestine or neighbouring Arab countries, leading to multiple wars and violence in the region. There has been increasing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory since 1967.

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Editor & Digital Director, follow him on Twitter