We Will Dance Again (2024)

[bunniefuu]

I think about everything

that happened that day.



Even if I don't want to

think about it, it pops up.

I kind of dive into the

thoughts sometimes by mistake.

At the beginning, I thought

maybe to tell my friends to...

to leave.

But at that point,

it was already too late.

They're sh**ting at us,

and they're going to try

to kidnap us or k*ll us.

Everyone was trying

to call some authority.

And no one was really answering.

I remember at one point

that there was a really big

expl*si*n, and I flew back.

Someone flew on me.

And when I finally got up,

I realized that I was

sitting in a pile of bodies.

Car after car of dead people.

Then you start

realizing what happened.

We survived a horrific

terror attack that didn't

seem possible to survive.

I've kind of understood

that I'm never

going to be the person that I

was before the 7th of October.

And I'm trying to figure

out who I'm going to be now.





The festival itself was amazing.

The festival itself was amazing.

I've not seen anything

even remotely close

to that in Israel in years.

Everything was perfect.

The energy of people just

wanting to dance and enjoy

themselves and then going at

it with all that they have,

it was beautiful.

There's something about seeing

a trance dance floor move.

You feel connected.

You feel part of something.

You're accepted

no matter who you are

and what you're bringing.



3,500 people went

to a festival to dance

in the nature

for peace and for love.

400 of them didn't come home.

And they're not going to.



In these kind of raves, you

don't really know where it is.

And you get a location

the night of the party.

I remember driving and

just looking out the window

and seeing Gaza.

And I didn't even

think it was dangerous.

We were all students

starting our fourth year.

We all like going to parties.

And the second Nova

tickets came out,

they were really cheap.

Seemed like a perfect thing

to do right before

the year started.



When I got there and I

understood that I can see

the fence dividing us

from Gaza from where we are,

it was like, well,

it's been quiet for a while.

There haven't been any missiles.

It will probably be OK.



So my name is Noa.

I'm 29 years old.

I work as a booking agent

for electronic music.



I came to the Nova

party for work.

I brought a DJ from Hungary.

My job was to take him to the

party, let him play his set,

and then take him back home.

This production was

in collaboration

with the Universo Paralello.

It's a very big

festival in Brazil.

They were in Israel.

It looked like we were at a

concert somewhere in Europe.

It was... it was beautiful.

I've met people and DJs

from all over the world.

There are Jews and Arabs

and tourists that come in.

You see people from

every edge of religion.

It's not something

that we notice.

It's not something

that we care about.

Be a human being.

Be happy, smile,

dance with people,

and you'll probably

be fine in the end.

Whoo-hoo!

Hey!

There's something

about the moment

that the sun rises that

you suddenly see the people

around you, that you

suddenly see the smiles

and that the energy

comes together.

You can actually see the dance

floor moving into a place.

I was on the stage.

So I could actually see it.

I looked at the person next to

me, and we were both like, wow.



This is a test of

frequency instruments.

Bass, drums, distortion,

artifacts.



And I see a bunch of people

looking up to the sky.

OK, probably just like seeing

the sun rise or something?

The last video

I took from my phone

was at 6:28 in the morning.

It was the last drop

that he played.



The moment

that I stopped filming,

someone grabbed my hand

and showed me the sky.



He yelled into the crowd,

Tzeva Adom, Tzeva Adom.

Everyone scattered.

It was like a screen coming

up from the sky of rockets,

just like whew.

The most rockets I've

ever seen in my life.

Oh, f*ck!

We laid on the ground.

I was honestly scared.

You're in an open field.

There's rockets everywhere.

Nothing is stopping these

rockets from falling

exactly where I am right now.

Whoa!

Whoo.

Whoa.

We were parked

in the artists' VIP area.

The big parking was

a little bit more in.

So we were very

close to the road.

We could get out very quickly.

I went to the DJ,

and I told him, listen,

there's no time for goodbyes.

There's no time for waiting.

We're running to the car.

We're going to leave.

And we were driving

on Route 232.

On the way north,

we passed Be'eri.

I'd close the windows

and put on music

so that we don't hear

what's going on outside,

and we were driving.

Rockets were exploding

over our heads.

We didn't understand if

we're safe or we're not safe.

We stop at the side of the road.

We see the migunit,

concrete structure

on the side of the road

that is supposed

to be as close to a b*mb

shelter as possible.

And it seemed like

the smartest move

to make, to go into the migunit.







Whoo!



When we got to about 200

meters before the first thing,

we took the turn.

The two cars that were in front

of me suddenly hit the brakes.

At first, it looked

like an accident.

So my first instinct

was, you need

to get out and help someone.

So I opened my door.

And the moment I opened my

door, I heard the first b*llet.



At this point, no one

knows that there's t*rrorists

that entered Israel.

I think there was about

19 people in migunit.

It's a tiny structure.

There's not that much

room to move inside.

Some of the people are

still standing outside just

to look at the rockets.

And then slowly,

more and more people come.

Finally, four people arrived.

One of them was Aner Shapiro.

And one of them

was Hersh Goldberg.

Aner was very confident.

I remember it.

He walked in.

He told us that there's a big

attack on Israel from Gaza.

He didn't really

elaborate too much.

My... my heart jumped a beat.

And I realized that something

bad is about to happen.

I felt it so deep in my

stomach that I didn't even

know what to do or how to react.

At the beginning,

I thought maybe

to tell my friends to leave

so they get in the car

and drive away.

But at that point,

it was already too late.











The only thing between

me and the t*rrorists

were my car doors.

There were a few moments

where I thought I was dead.

The only reason that

they missed is by chance.

Something was protecting us.

I don't have a word for it.

But I thought I was dead.

I was either dead,

or I was very, very hurt

and I wasn't feeling it.

If I'm not feeling any pain,

then I'm probably dead.

That was the math

I did in my head.

I looked at my hands

and understood

that I was still alive and

that we need to do something.

And then I just yelled,

"Get in the car."

[car horn honking

I looked in the back mirror,

and I could see the car

behind me that had stopped.

The driver and the guy

that were next to him

were shot in the head.

And I saw them slaughter people.

Every car that had come

towards us had either been

show off the road... and you

could actually see cars just

going off the road in a moment.

And then people tried

to run out of the cars,

and there were t*rrorists

sh**ting them down.

Whoo!



Tuck your heads down.

Tuck your heads down.

After we... we had gone

out of the sh**ting range,

I called the police.

And the first question

they asked me was, "What?

What do you mean

they shot at you?"

No one understood the situation.



A group of people jump out,

screaming in Arabic.

Aner tried to calm everyone

down as much as possible.

And then they started firing

at the entrance of the migunit.

Lobed, he went outside and tried

to talk to them in Arabic.

They did horrible things to him

and m*rder*d him in the end.

Everyone in the migunit

was trying

to call some authority,

MDA or the cops

or the army or someone.

No one was really answering.

And then I see Aner just picked

them up and tossed them out.

And he does that once, and

then they throw another one in.

Every time they

throw in a grenade,

he just grabbed it

and tossed it out.

He acted like a commander.

He took all the

responsibility onto himself.

He was focused.

He... he understood

that he had a mission.

All he was looking for was

to fight, to stay alive.

I'm thinking to myself,

oh, my God,

this kid is throwing

live grenades.

I don't think that

I've ever heard

of anyone ever doing that.

I know how dangerous this is.

I think there's a chance that

he's not the only one that's

going to have to do this.

And I kind of get myself

ready for the point

where if something happens to

him, that I'm going to have

to pick up what he left.

There was a really big

expl*si*n, and I flew back.

Someone flew on me.

And when I finally

got up, I remember

Aner wasn't standing anymore.

He wasn't with us.

Hersh lost his hand.

And he was just sitting there.

He said, "I lost my hand.

I don't have my hand."

And he was trying to,

like, tie it off.

At that point,

I kind of realized

that someone's going to have

to continue what he started.

And then I remember

a grenade flying in,

just landing right

in front of me.

And you could see

the flame coming

out of the top of the grenade.

And it was a few inches.

And I remember it getting

smaller and smaller.

And I just picked up

the grenade and threw it out.

And I'm not sure how many

of those there were.

I remember the first one,

and I remember the last two.





The one at the

entrance I remember

I was able to throw out.

But then there was an expl*si*n.

I went flying into

the wall and passed out.

Hey, hey, hey!

Shup, shup.

Pew, pew.





You know, Russian roulette.

Who gets the b*llet?



At that point,

they started kidnapping people.

They took Hersh out because

he was at the entrance.

They started putting them in

the trucks wherever they could

and whoever they

tried to kidnap.

I remember seeing

a t*rror1st walk in.

He was wearing all black.

He had a black

mask on, an AK-47,

and a green bandanna on his

head with the Hamas symbol.

I remember you could see

his mouth through the mask,

like he had a little opening.

And he was smiling, like it

was a game that they won.

They came back in.

And then they started

sh**ting everyone inside.

They left.

I looked left and right.

And I thought

everyone was acting

or playing dead so that

they wouldn't get kidnapped.

But after a minute

or two, where... when

people weren't lifting

their heads or waking up,

I realized that I was

sitting in a pile of bodies.



f*ck.







We were there

for another six hours.

Six hours in piles of bodies,

praying to God

that no one... no t*rrorists

come back and just

look or pop in their head.

We both got into an army Jeep.

And they told us

to put our heads down.

But I... I couldn't look away.

Car after car with dead people.

Then you start

realizing what happened.



We survived a horrific

terror attack that

didn't seem possible to survive.



I'm still coping.

I don't know.

Like, I can find myself

crying in the middle

of the day for no reason.

Sleeping has become a mission.











Every single person

that I lost on that day

would have made the

hell out of this life.

And for them,

I need to continue living.

We are going to need to go

through mountains of pain

until we get there.

But I close my eyes

for a moment,

and I picture my friends

that aren't with us

anymore and hoping that...

that wherever they are,

they're partying like crazy,

and that one day we will, too.