Nova Music Festival survivor shares message of hope, appreciation one year since the attack
NEW YORK -- Life has a new meaning for Tomer Meir.
Walking through Central Park recently, the 21-year-old said this new chapter has more purpose than anything he could have imagined.
"I need to be focused on the fact that I'm here right now and I survived," Meir said. "I know that something protected me in that day. I don't know what yet. I'm learning that."
On Oct. 7, 2023, Meir and 14 of his friends found themselves at the Nova Music Festival, just three miles away from the Gaza border.
"We were just human beings that came together, gathered together, to dance spread love, enjoy life," he said.
"It came to be a war zone"
Meir talked about the photos he has from that energetic, stress-free morning. The last one he took was before 6:30 a.m.
"It was such a beautiful moments for me my friends, for the people that were there, and it's so extremely separated because after 6:30, it came to be a war zone," said Meir.
Soon after, rockets went off from Gaza, filling the sky. Tomer and his friends took a video as it unfolded, moments after the music stopped.
"I felt that there was something bigger (happening)," Meir said.
The number of rockets being sent from Gaza into Israel was increasing by the minute.
"You never think about terrorists Saturday morning at the border of Gaza," he said.
What party-goers didn't know was that Hamas was getting ready in Gaza to unleash a brutal attack on innocent civilians inside of Israel. They breached the border fence and started their deadly rampage on Route 232, murdering anyone in sight as they got closer and closer to the Nova festival location.
"There's not a lot of roads to run away from," Meir said. "We just ran to the field."
"Arabs saved me"
That open field soon became part of the story for most of the people that attended the party. There was nowhere to hide as Hamas terrorists began their attack at the festival ground.
Meir and his friends took off on foot after trying to flee in their vehicle. He said they were ambushed by terrorists but managed to break free. It was survival mode.
"We saw a Jeep that was picking up people and got us to a better place in the field," he said. "We just jumped on the back of the Jeep."
Video shows Meir and his friend holding on to the back of the vehicle as it speeds through the open field. That was when they took a chance and got into another vehicle.
"Then a car filled with Bedouins ... and they saved our lives," he said. "Arabs saved me. It's also what's really motivating me to tell more of my story."
Meir has told his story at the Nova Exhibit in New York and Los Angeles, promoting peace and unity amongst all people. He said his new, profound appreciation for life is giving this new chapter a sense of purpose.
"I feel like everything here can end in a second and when you're so close to lose that, your appreciation to that is incredible," he explained.
"It's all little miracles"
The Nova Festival field is now filled with the memories of those who couldn't escape, for those whose fate ended when the worst side of humanity arrived. Some of them are still hostages in Gaza, 365 days later.
Originally from Tel Aviv, Meir is now a student at Yeshiva University, a plan he says is bigger than him, all while living each day for those who are no longer here. His 14 friends also survived, but Meir lost friends in other attacks and since the war in Gaza began.
"It's all little miracles," Meir said. "I feel like I grabbed myself a little part of each one of them. They're living inside of me. It's the biggest blessing I could get for myself."
More than 360 people were murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Nova festival and 44 of them were taken as hostages into Gaza.
Hamas' terror attack on October 7th was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
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