Supernova survivors sue Israeli government for $56m
Forty-two survivors of the 7 October massacre at Israel’s Supernova Sukkot festival are suing the government’s security forces for NIS 200 million ($56 million) in damages.
The plaintiffs filed the claim at the Tel Aviv District Court on Monday (1 January) against the Shin Bet security service, the Israel Defense Forces, the Israel Police, and the Defense Ministry, alleging multiple instances in which they failed in their duties.
“One phone call separated the plaintiffs’ lives and the integrity of their bodies and souls from the destruction of their lives,” reads the lawsuit, which is the largest tort claim ever filed in Israel against the state.
“A single phone call by IDF officials to the commander responsible for the party to disperse it immediately in view of the expected danger would have saved lives and prevented the physical and mental injuries of hundreds of partygoers, including the plaintiffs,” it continues. “The negligence and the gross oversight is beyond belief.”
According to the lawsuit, 364 attendees were killed and 40 kidnapped after Hamas stormed the second day of the trance music gathering, held near the Gaza-Israel border, as part of a wider coordinated attack on Israel. The festival, near Kibbutz Re’im, was attended by 3,500.
The claim cited reports following the massacre, which claimed senior officers in the Gaza Division expressed concerns over the party, and that the operations commander opposed it being held. It also noted that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar held consultations the night before, and even sent a special operations team to the border the night before the onslaught.
“On the night between October 6 and October 7, at least two IDF assessments were held due to unusual incidents on the Gaza Strip border, one near midnight and another assessment close to 3 am, several hours before the Hamas attack,” the lawsuit reads.
“The negligence and the gross oversight is beyond belief”
The plaintiffs said that the IDF was unable to provide adequate security for the event since many soldiers were at home over the Simchat Torah holiday. Only 27 police officers were stationed at the festival, most of them not in possession of long arms, as required when based near the border.
Attorney Shimon Buchbut, a retired Air Force commander cited as an expert in the lawsuit, said that the IDF was negligent in giving approval for the party and that any reasonable official would not have allowed it to go ahead.
Among the damages listed in the lawsuit are loss of earnings, pain and suffering, loss of life’s pleasures, loss of future earnings, and medical expenses.
Executives from Israel’s live music industry have called the Hamas attack the “biggest-ever disaster at a music festival”, adding that business will be paused for the foreseeable future.
Festival organiser Tribe of Nova said it was “shocked and pained” in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.
“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,” it added.
Nearly three months into the war, the death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza surpassed 22,000 yesterday (3 January), according to reports from The Guardian.
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At least 260 killed in attack on Israel festival
At least 260 people have been killed and others abducted in an attack by Hamas militants on Israel’s Supernova festival in what is believed to be the deadliest-ever assault on a music event.
Held under the Universo Paralello brand launched in Brazil 23 years ago, The Tribe of Nova presents Supernova was staged in Israel for the first time from 6-7 October – coinciding with the Jewish festival of Sukkot.
The trance music festival was being attended by around 3,000 people in the desert near Kibbutz Re’im, not far from the Gaza Strip, when Palestinian militants stormed the gathering on Saturday morning and opened fire as part of a surprise coordinated attack on Israel.
Eyewitnesses told Israel’s Channel 12 that a siren went off at the event around dawn, warning of rockets attacks. Rockets were then quickly followed by gunshots, as festival-goers attempted to flee in their cars.
“Suddenly out of nowhere they came inside with gunfire, opening fire in every direction”
“In the middle of the party, which was big and at high volume, a red alarm started,” said one witness. “They turned off the music and we all gathered our things. They turned off the electricity and suddenly out of nowhere they came inside with gunfire, opening fire in every direction. I took the car keys and we started moving forward to escape the gunfire. At some point they overtook us, they shot at our vehicles and we got out of them.
“Fifty terrorists arrived in vans, dressed in military uniforms. They fired bursts, and we reached a point where everyone parked their vehicles and started running. I [hid in a bush] and they just started spraying people.
“There were several vehicles that started driving and their wheels were also shot at. I was in the bush for almost an hour, I didn’t move and everything passed before my eyes.”
Supernova, which had three stages, a camping area and a bar, had reportedly been switched to the Re’im site at short notice when a deal to hold it at another location collapsed.
Israeli producer Artifex was performing on the main stage when the attack started, with the festival’s international line-up also including Aladin, Astral Projection, Flare, Jackalon, Jumpstreet, Kido, Libra, Man With no Name, Noface, Protonica, Rocky Tilbor, Shove, Spectra Sonics, Swarup and Wegha.
“People were hiding in ditches, hiding in bushes, hiding in the woods, hiding wherever you can think of”
Artist manager Raz Gaster, who represented several of the artists at the event, tells Billboard: “Around 6:30 in the morning we started hearing explosions. We went out of the backstage and we saw a full bombardment everywhere. It was hundreds of rockets and mortars flying from everywhere and explosions all around us.
“People were hiding in ditches, hiding in bushes, hiding in the woods, hiding wherever you can think of.”
An emergency medic who was called to the event tells public broadcaster Kan News: “It was a massacre. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It was a planned ambush. As people came out of the emergency exits, squads of terrorists were waiting for them there and just started picking them off.
“There were 3,000 people at the event, so they probably knew it. They had intelligence information.”
The death toll is expected to rise while teams continue to clear the area.
“We stand with the residents of Israel, IDF fighters and the security forces in these difficult moments”
The BBC reports at least 700 people have been killed in Israel since the attacks began, including 44 soldiers, while more than 500 people have died in Gaza after Israel launched retaliatory air strikes. In a televised address, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said: “We are at war. Not an operation, not a round [of fighting,] at war.”
Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), described the events of Saturday as “a 9/11 and a Pearl Harbor wrapped into one”. “It is by far the worst day in Israeli history,” he said. “Never before have so many Israelis been killed by one single thing on one day.”
A 60,000-cap Bruno Mars concert scheduled for Saturday (7 October) Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park was cancelled amid the escalation of the conflict. The US star had played his first ever show in Israel just three days earlier. Hayarkon Park has hosted recent shows by acts including Guns N’ Roses and Maroon 5, as well as the Summer in the City festival, which featured the likes of Sam Smith, Robbie Williams, Martin Garrix and Papa Roach.
“We stand with the residents of Israel, IDF fighters and the security forces in these difficult moments,” says a statement, translated from Hebrew, by Live Nation Israel.
Tel Aviv emerging music showcase InDNegev, set for 12-14 October, has also been called off.
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