Nova festival survivor dies two years after girlfriend killed by Hamas

Warning: This article contains details that some people may find disturbing Life was good for Roei Shalev.

The 29-year-old had just moved in with the "love of his life" a few days before and had been celebrating with her at the Supernova music festival, a rave in Israel's Negev desert. But his joy turned to terror when Hamas gunmen stormed the event near Re'im in the early hours of 7 October 2023.

Roei and his girlfriend Mapal Adam were dancing with their friend Hilly Solomon when rocket fire suddenly drowned out the music. Roei, Mapal and Hilly frantically tried to escape by car, driving away from the festival grounds until they encountered a young woman stumbling into the road, covered in blood.

She warned them that there were Hamas attackers behind her, so the trio exited their vehicle and ran to nearby trees to hide. "Bullets whizzed past us, grenades exploded nearby, and terror engulfed us from all directions," Roei said, recalling the event when writing about it later.

They dived under two abandoned cars - Roei and Mapal under one, Hilly under the other. Mapal frantically messaged her sister Maayan, an Israeli TV presenter, who desperately tried to reassure her - and told her help was on the way.

But the gunmen caught up with them, shooting the three festivalgoers as they were pinned under the cars. Roei tried to shield 26-year-old Mapal from the bullets, but she died beneath him while he was shot in the back.

Hilly, 26, was also killed instantly. What followed were "agonising" hours during which Roei lay still, covered in his and his girlfriend's blood, and played dead.

Even when a second group of gunmen approached and shot at him a second time, hitting him in the back yet again, he did not move. Seven hours later, the Israeli army found Roei alive.

Mapal's family later said it brought them comfort to know she "had died in his arms". The terror continued A week after his girlfriend and best friend were killed, Roei said his mother Raffaela took her own life because she "couldn't contain the pain and losses of October 7.