22 | OCTOBER 3 • 2024 J
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fter a joyous night of dancing and partying
with friends at the Nova Music Festival in
southern Israel, Amit Ganish decided to
take a brief rest before the long drive back to her
home in the north. She had barely dozed off when
she was jolted awake by the sounds of gunshots,
anguished screams and shouts of “Terrorists … run,
run!”
Ganish, 24, told her story to a group of local
elected officials at the Jewish Federation of Detroit
on behalf of “Faces of October Seventh,
” an
international organization that connects survivors
with communities around the world.
As a survivor of one of the worst massacres carried
out by the Hamas terrorist organization on Oct. 7,
she wants to provide a firsthand perspective of the
horrors she and hundreds of others endured that day.
“Whatever you have heard, the reality is much
worse,
” she told the audience.
Ganish, a law student at Bar-Ilan University, had
a “bad feeling” the night before the festival, but she
shrugged it off when her mother urged her to go and
have fun before the new semester began.
Once she arrived, her misgivings dissipated as she
and her best friend, Zohar, joined in the dancing and
revelry that continued throughout the night. They
met up with Zohar’s boyfriend, Mataan, who was
running the sound and electrical equipment for the
festival.
“My bad feelings disappeared; there was so much
energy and excitement,
” she said.
Around 6:30 a.m., the music stopped as the
revelers looked toward the sky and saw multiple
rockets coming from the direction of Gaza.
Frightened by the continuing explosions, many of the
attendees hurried to grab their belongings and pile
into cars.
Ganish and Zohar stayed to help Mataan
dissemble his equipment.
“I felt OK,
” Ganish said. “We are used to rockets
where I live, and I assumed they would stop.
”
As the rockets continued, Ganish and Zohar
decided to take a short rest before driving home.
Finding chairs near the main stage, their eyes had
just closed when they heard gunshots and terrified
screams. They awoke to a nightmarish scene of
armed terrorists shooting at people as they ran
toward the woods or scrambled under the stage for

cover.
Joining hands, the two friends
literally ran for their lives, following
a group that was heading toward the
forest. They had not gone far when
a car carrying other survivors pulled
up and motioned them to get in.
Mataan, who was unable to fit in the small vehicle,
told Zohar he loved her, assured her he would be fine
and waved good-bye.
At a passenger’s direction, the driver made a right
turn and Ganish felt bullets flying past her neck and
under her legs. As terrorists surrounded the car,
the women jumped out and began running zigzag
to avoid being shot. The first semblance of shelter
they found was a bush, so they jumped in and hid
themselves as best they could beneath the foliage.
Ganish, thinking “this is it,
” sent texts to her
mother and boyfriend.
She and Zohar remained crouched in the bush
for nine hours without access to food, water or
bathroom facilities while the mayhem continued
around them.
“We had to be very tiny and silent,
” said Ganish,
who prayed continuously throughout the ordeal. “We

heard people being murdered and kidnapped. The
terrorists were happy; they were excited to be killing.
”


After nine grueling hours, they heard a man with
an Arabic accent say, “Is anyone alive in there?”
Unable to remain in the bush a moment longer,
Zohar ventured out. Ganish followed, knowing they
could be walking into a terrorist trap, followed. To
their immense relief, the man was Rami Davidian,
an Israeli father of four who became an international
hero after rescuing more than 700 people who were
hiding out after fleeing the site of the music festival.
After all the survivors were taken to safety,
Davidian returned to the site of the party where
more than 360 people had been brutally killed. There
he tended to the dead, covering the naked corpses of
young women and praying over the bodies.
Davidian ushered Zohar and Ganish to a waiting
car that drove them to a safe place
where other survivors were sheltering.
Ganish’s family, fearing the worst after
so many hours had passed without a
word, learned she was alive when they
saw her brought to safety on the local
news.
After spending the night at Zohar’s,
Ganish went home the next day to
reunite with her family. It took days
to learn the full extent of the damage
perpetrated by the terrorist attacks,
which killed more than 1,000 Israelis,
including Mataan and several friends. Many of
the 250 hostages taken that day have since been
murdered; others are still missing.
“I feel I had a lot of luck … the terrorists just didn’t
see me,
” she said, adding that the experience has
changed her profoundly. “I’m different; I’m 1,000
miles away from the girl I was.
”
Despite her ordeal, Ganish is optimistic about the
future, including her career as a lawyer.
“In that bush, I promised God a lot of things,
”
she said. “I promised to do something that will help
children. They did not kill me then, and they will not
kill me now.
”
When asked her opinion on a cease-fire in Israel,
she declined to talk about politics or military strategy.
“I’m here as the voice of those who cannot speak,
the hundreds of people who were murdered, raped
and kidnapped,
” she replied.

One woman’s experience at the Nova Music Festival.
A Survivor
Survivor’s Story

RONELLE GRIER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY

Amit
Ganish