NEW YORK — Life has a new meaning for Tomer Meir.
Continue Central Park Recently, the 21-year-old said that this new chapter has more purpose than anything he could have imagined.
“I have to focus on the fact that I’m here now and that I survived,” Meir said. “I know something protected me that day. I don’t know what yet. I’m learning that.’
On October 7, 2023, Meir and 14 of his friends found themselves at the Nova Music Festivaljust five kilometers from the Gaza border.
“We were just human beings coming together, coming together, to dance, spread love and enjoy life,” he said.
‘It became a war zone’
Meir talked about the photos he has of that energetic, stress-free morning. The last one he took was before 6:30 am
“They were such beautiful moments for me, my friends, for the people who were there, and it’s so extremely segregated because it became a war zone after 6:30 p.m.,” Meir said.
Shortly afterwards, rockets went off from Gaza and filled the sky. Tomer and his friends took a video as it unfolded, moments after the music stopped.
“I felt something bigger was happening,” Meir said.
Tomer Meir
The number of rockets sent from Gaza into Israel increased by the minute.
“You never think about terrorists on a Saturday morning at the Gaza border,” he said.
What the partygoers did not know was that Hamas was preparing in Gaza to unleash a brutal attack on innocent civilians in Israel. They breached the border fence and began their deadly rampage on Route 232, killing everyone they encountered as they got closer and closer to the Nova festival location.
“There aren’t many avenues to escape from,” Meir said. “We just ran to the field.”
“Arabs saved me”
That open field quickly became part of the story for most of the people who attended the party. There was nowhere to hide when Hamas terrorists began their attack on the festival site.
Meir and his friends fled 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 picking people up and taking us to a better spot in the field,” he said. “We just jumped on the back of the Jeep.”
Tomer Meir
The video shows Meir and his friend holding the back of the vehicle as it speeds through the open field. That’s when they took a chance and got into another vehicle.
“Then a car full of Bedouins came… and they saved our lives,” he said. “The Arabs saved me. It’s also what really motivates me to tell more of my story.”
Meir has told his story on the Nova exhibition in New York and Los Angeles, which promotes peace and unity among all people. He said his new, deep appreciation for life gives this new chapter a sense of purpose.
“I feel like everything here could end in a second and when you’re so close to losing that, your appreciation for that is incredible,” he explained.
“They are all little miracles”
The field of the Nova Festival is now filled with the memories of those who could not escape, for those whose fate ended when the worst side of humanity arrived. Some of them are still held hostage in Gaza 365 days later.
Meir is originally from Tel Aviv and now studies at Yeshiva University, a plan he says is bigger than himself, as he lives every day for those who are no longer here. His fourteen friends also survived, but Meir lost friends in other attacks and since the start of the war in Gaza.
“They are all little miracles,” Meir said. “I feel like I’ve appropriated a little part of each of them. They live within me. It’s the greatest blessing I could have for myself.”
More than 360 people were killed by Hamas terrorists at the Nova festival and 44 of them were taken to Gaza as hostages.
The Hamas terror attack on October 7 was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
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Shosh Bedrosian
