Nova festival survivor dies two years after girlfriend shot dead as he shielded her | World News

Warning: This text comprises particulars that some individuals could discover disturbing

Life was good for Roei Shalev.

The 29-year-old had simply moved in with the “love of his life” just a few days earlier than and had been celebrating along with her on the Supernova music competition, a rave in Israel’s Negev desert.

However his pleasure turned to terror when Hamas gunmen stormed the occasion close to Re’im within the early hours of seven October 2023.

Roei and his girlfriend Mapal Adam had been dancing with their good friend Hilly Solomon when rocket fireplace abruptly drowned out the music.

Roei, Mapal and Hilly frantically tried to flee by automobile, driving away from the competition grounds till they encountered a younger lady stumbling into the highway, lined in blood.

She warned them that there have been Hamas attackers behind her, so the trio exited their automobile and ran to close by bushes to cover.

“Bullets whizzed previous us, grenades exploded close by, and terror engulfed us from all instructions,” Roei mentioned, recalling the occasion when writing about it later.

They dived below two deserted automobiles – Roei and Mapal below one, Hilly below the opposite.

Mapal frantically messaged her sister Maayan, an Israeli TV presenter, who desperately tried to reassure her – and informed her assist was on the way in which.

However the gunmen caught up with them, taking pictures the three festivalgoers as they had been pinned below the automobiles.

Roei tried to protect 26-year-old Mapal from the bullets, however she died beneath him whereas he was shot within the again. Hilly, 26, was additionally killed immediately.

What adopted had been “agonising” hours throughout which Roei lay nonetheless, lined in his and his girlfriend’s blood, and performed lifeless.

Even when a second group of gunmen approached and shot at him a second time, hitting him within the again but once more, he didn’t transfer.

Seven hours later, the Israeli military discovered Roei alive.

Mapal’s household later mentioned it introduced them consolation to know she “had died in his arms”.

The phobia continued

Per week after his girlfriend and greatest good friend had been killed, Roei mentioned his mom Raffaela took her personal life as a result of she “could not comprise the ache and losses of October 7”, the day on which assaults by Hamas on Israel resulted in a complete of over 1,200 individuals killed and 251 taken hostage.

“In only one week, I misplaced three of an important ladies to me on the earth,” Roei mentioned.

“Within the months that adopted, I struggled to manage. Flashbacks and nervousness consumed me, and sleep grew to become a distant reminiscence.”

Roei mentioned remedy and the unwavering help of others gave him the power to share his story publicly.

“I opened up on social media, laying naked the rawest particulars of my trauma. The response was overwhelming,” Roei wrote on a fundraising web page for Nova competition survivors and their households final yr.

“Messages poured in from individuals who discovered solace and inspiration in my journey. Their phrases gave me goal, a cause to maintain preventing.”

He mentioned he was “unsure of what the longer term holds”, however knew that he needed to “honour the reminiscence of the three extraordinary ladies who had been taken from us too quickly”.

Within the two years that adopted these tragic occasions, Roei renamed the household bakery he had been operating together with his girlfriend to “Mapal Cafe”, in tribute to his “one and solely love” and organised occasions to commemorate Mapal and Hilly.

“Amidst the ache and sorrow, I maintain onto one reality: we’ll dance once more,” he mentioned in his fundraising put up a yr in the past.

On the second anniversary of his girlfriend’s loss of life, Roei wrote on Instagram: “Two years have handed because the most horrible day of my life… and of an entire nation.

“The eager for you is simply getting greater, the ache doesn’t go with time. It’s all the time there, in every single place, on a regular basis. I am stuffed with ache this yr, much more than final yr.”

Within the put up, Roei thanked his girlfriend for “moments I will not neglect, pure love and the perfect relationship I might ask for”.

He additionally addressed each her and Hilly, saying: “An enormous apology that I could not hold you protected on this horrible day, you already know I did every thing, I did every thing to maintain you protected, my beloved.

“I most well-liked to die in agony and so that you can survive it.”

On Friday night time, three days after that anniversary, Roei posted a notice on his Instagram account, saying he “cannot go on anymore”.

“I’ve by no means felt such deep and burning ache and struggling in my life. It is consuming me up inside,” Roei wrote.

His notice raised concern amongst his household and associates, and a frantic search was launched.

The search ended just a few hours later within the tragic discovery of Roei’s physique inside a burning automobile close to Poleg Seaside in Netanya, Israel.

Learn extra:
Shoes and fairy lights: Remnants of Nova festival attack
All the hostages believed to be alive and due for release

Upon listening to information of his loss of life, Mapal’s sister wrote in a put up shared on Instagram: “I’ve no phrases, and it’ll take time to seek out them. I hope these two kids are embraced and smiling now, hearts pressed collectively once more.”

Roei’s household confirmed his loss of life in an announcement and requested for his or her privateness to be revered.

Police have opened an investigation, in line with Israeli media.

Anybody feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can name Samaritans for assistance on 116 123 or e mail jo@samaritans.org within the UK.

Alternatively, you’ll be able to name Thoughts’s help line on 0300 102 1234, or NHS on 111.