Survivors of Israel music festival massacre unite to build a healing community

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — In the months since Hamas’ surprise attack sent them scattering across fields or hiding in desert brush, thousands of survivors of a massacre at a trance festival in Israel have come together as a community to heal.

They have found solace in massage therapy, ice baths, yoga or surfing with the only people who could truly understand what they had been through. And they have built a robust support network for themselves as the Israel-Hamas war rages on and authorities struggle to provide services to devastated communities.

For some, the way back has come through dancing again.

On Thursday, thousands of people attended the Nova Healing Concert in Tel Aviv, the first Tribe of Nova mass gathering since the Oct. 7 attack.

“We understood that people needed to be together, and we’re a community that takes care of itself,” said Omri Sasa, one of the founders of the Tribe of Nova, which organized the festival last October. “I’m in trauma, and I wanted to be with people who also went through this.”

He was among around 3,000 people dancing through the night in a field just miles from Gaza when rockets lit up the sky at 6:29 a.m. Heavily armed Palestinian militants rampaged through the festival, killing at least 364 people and taking more than 40 hostage. Many of them are still held in Gaza.

Hila Fakliro, a communications student who was tending bar at the festival, escaped by zigzagging through fields, hiding and running for over five hours, until she reached the safety of a village some 20 kilometers (12 miles) away. Six of her friends were killed and another three were taken hostage.

“Someone asked me if I can dance again, and in the beginning I said no,” she said. At a memorial in January for one of her friends, she tried to dance, had a panic attack, and then tried again. “I was crying and dancing at the same time,” she said.

But after attending events organized by Nova survivors, she was once again able to find solace in the trance music she loves. At a recent event, she slid into an ice bath while others attended yoga and art classes in a cluster of tents.

Omri Kohavi, 35, one of Nova's founding organizers, said they had felt abandoned by Israel’s security forces, who took hours to respond to the Oct. 7 attack. Now director of community programming for the Nova Foundation, Kohavi said organizers realized within days that “if we don’t care for ourselves, no one else will.”

Survivors began to gather to deal with the trauma they had experienced together. On the first day, 500 showed up. That number doubled the following day. After three months, they shifted to weekly Community Day events and encouraged survivors to return to their regular lives and jobs.

At those events in Tel Aviv, survivors meet with therapists, lawyers, social workers or just spend time with one another. The Nova Foundation connects survivors to opportunities for horse therapy, surfing and massage. Some have completed trainings in peer therapy to help others, and the organization recently began providing support to the families of those killed.

Earlier this month, Israel rescued four hostages who were snatched from the festival, which Sasa said “was the biggest present anyone could imagine.” The daytime rescue killed over 270 Palestinians.

The gathering Thursday was to raise money to support the volunteer network and to call for the release of the remaining hostages. To appeal to a broader audience, it featured electronic music and mainstream artists as well as the Nova mainstay, trance.

“We need a lot of money, and the only way we know how to raise money is through events,” Sasa said.

Nova provided a separate area at the Nova Healing Concert for survivors and family members of victims, and two hostages who were released during a ceasefire in November addressed the crowd. A chorus of mothers who lost their children performed.

The war ignited by Hamas’ attack is far from over. Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel on Oct. 7, and another 250 were taken hostage. Israel’s massive offensive in Gaza has killed over 37,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Fears of another all-out war, this time with Hezbollah in Lebanon, have people on edge.

Sivan Cohen, 30, said ahead of the event Thursday that she would be “dancing for two.” Her partner of six years, Yaniv Sarudi, 26, was killed while trying to drive a car filled with nine festivalgoers to safety. Cohen was shot in the leg and, at first, she wasn’t sure if she would ever walk again, much less dance.

“My friends and I have grabbed this with both hands and we come every week,” Cohen said of Nova's Community Days. She said it’s hard to explain to those who weren’t there what it means to reunite with someone who was in that car or whose injuries she helped to treat.

On Thursday, tens of thousands danced in the humid June heat, the beat pulsing as the sun set over the Nova stage. Quiet corners for reflection with mandalas and photos of the victims gave way to a massive party at the center stage.

“The only way to really commemorate these people is through living what they lived, which is dancing. That’s what they came there to do,” Eyal Porat said as he entered the festival.

Moran Stella Yanai, who was snatched from the Nova festival and held hostage for 54 days, took the stage and invited audience members to close their eyes.

“Imagine, imagine that all of the hostages are standing in a line, holding hands, imagine them strong, imagine them smiling, imagine their families standing before them, imagine the happiness that is beginning to well up inside,” Yanai said.

“Raise your hands up to the sky, high and strong,” she told the crowd. “Open your eyes, believe, and dance!”

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

A young woman is comforted as she weeps at the Nova Healing Concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. This was the first Tribe of Nova mass gathering since the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas that left hundreds at the Nova music festival dead or kidnapped to Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

People dance the Nova Healing Concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. This was the first Tribe of Nova mass gathering since the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas that left hundreds at the Nova music festival dead or kidnapped to Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A woman weeps as her companion comforts her at the Nova Healing Concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. This was the first Tribe of Nova mass gathering since the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas that left hundreds at the Nova music festival dead or kidnapped to Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

People dance the Nova Healing Concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. This was the first Tribe of Nova mass gathering since the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas that left hundreds at the Nova music festival dead or kidnapped to Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

People pause at a picture display of hostages held in the Gaza Strip at the Nova Healing Concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. This was the first Tribe of Nova mass gathering since the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas that left hundreds at the Nova music festival dead or kidnapped to Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A woman wears a dress in the colors of the Israeli flag at the Nova Healing Concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. This was the first Tribe of Nova mass gathering since the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas that left hundreds at the Nova music festival dead or kidnapped to Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

People take part in the Nova Healing Concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. This was the first Tribe of Nova mass gathering since the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas that left hundreds at the Nova music festival dead or kidnapped to Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A woman weeps at the Nova Healing Concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. This was the first Tribe of Nova mass gathering since the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas that left hundreds at the Nova music festival dead or kidnapped to Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

PARIS (AP) — Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s resurgent National Rally, has voted in the first round of surprise legislative elections called for after her far-right party trounced French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrists in European elections.

Macron, a deeply unpopular president, decided to dissolve parliament in a huge gamble that could result in the French far right leading a government for the first time since World War II.

Two rounds of voting will determine who will be prime minister and which party controls France’s lower house.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

PARIS (AP) — Voters across mainland France began casting ballots Sunday in the first round of an exceptional parliamentary election that could put France’s government in the hands of nationalist, far-right parties for the first time since the Nazi era.

The outcome of the two-round election, which will wrap up July 7, could impact European financial markets, Western support for Ukraine, and how France’s nuclear arsenal and global military force are managed.

Many French voters are frustrated about inflation and economic concerns, as well as President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership, which they see as arrogant and out-of-touch with their lives. Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally party has tapped and fueled that discontent, notably via online platforms like TikTok, and dominated all preelection opinion polls.

A new coalition on the left, the New Popular Front, is also posing a challenge to the pro-business Macron and his centrist alliance Together for the Republic.

There are 49.5 million registered voters who will choose 577 members of the National Assembly, France's influential lower house of parliament, during the two-round voting.

After a blitz campaign marred by rising hate speech, voting began early in France’s overseas territories, and polling stations opened in mainland France at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) Sunday. The first polling projections are expected at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), when the final polling stations close, and early official results are expected later Sunday night.

The voting is taking place during the traditional first week of summer vacation in the country, and absentee ballot requests were at least five times higher than in the 2022 elections, according to figures from the interior ministry.

Voters who turned out in person at a Paris polling station on Sunday had issues from immigration to inflation and the rising cost of living on their minds as the country has grown more divided between the far right and far left blocs with a deeply unpopular and weakened president in the political center.

“People don't like what has been happening,” said Cynthia Justine, a 44-year-old voter in Paris. “People feel they've lost a lot in recent years. People are angry. I am angry.”

She added that with “the rising hate speech,” it was necessary for people to express their frustrations with those holding and seeking power and cast their ballots.

“It is important for me because I am a woman and we haven't always had the right to vote," Justin said. “Because I am a Black woman, it's even more important. A lot is at stake on this day.”

Pierre Leclaer, a 78-year-old retiree, said he cast his ballot for the simple reason of “trying to avoid the worst," which for him is "a government that is from the far right, populist, not liberal and not very Republican.”

Macron called the early election after his party was trounced in the European Parliament election earlier in June by the National Rally, which has historic ties to racism and antisemitism and is hostile toward France’s Muslim community. It was an audacious gamble that French voters who were complacent about the European Union election would be jolted into turning out for moderate forces in a national election to keep the far right out of power.

Instead, preelection polls suggest that the National Rally is gaining support and has a chance at winning a parliamentary majority. In that scenario, Macron would be expected to name 28-year-old National Rally President Jordan Bardella as prime minister in an awkward power-sharing system known as “cohabitation.”

In the restive French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, polls already closed at 5 p.m. local time due to an 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew that authorities on the archipelago have extended until July 8.

Nine people died during a two-week-long unrest in New Caledonia, where the Indigenous Kanak people have long sought to break free from France, which first took the Pacific territory in 1853. Violence flared on May 13 in response to attempts by Macron’s government to amend the French Constitution and change voting lists in New Caledonia, which Kanaks feared would further marginalize them.

Voters in France’s other overseas territories from Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana, French Polynesia and those voting in offices opened by embassies and consular posts across the Americas cast their ballots on Saturday.

While Macron has said he won’t step down before his presidential term expires in 2027, cohabitation would weaken him at home and on the world stage.

The results of the first round will give a picture of overall voter sentiment, but not necessarily of the overall makeup of the next National Assembly. Predictions are extremely difficult because of the complicated voting system, and because parties will work between the two rounds to make alliances in some constituencies or pull out of others.

In the past such tactical maneuvers helped keep far-right candidates from power. But now support for Le Pen's party has spread deep and wide.

Bardella, who has no governing experience, says he would use the powers of prime minister to stop Macron from continuing to supply long-range weapons to Ukraine for the war with Russia. His party has historical ties to Russia.

The party has also questioned the right to citizenship for people born in France, and wants to curtail the rights of French citizens with dual nationality. Critics say this undermines fundamental human rights and is a threat to France's democratic ideals.

Meanwhile, huge public spending promises by the National Rally and especially the left-wing coalition have shaken markets and ignited worries about France's heavy debt, already criticized by EU watchdogs.

Surk contributed from Nice, France.

Follow AP's coverage of elections at https://apnews.com/hub/global-elections

A woman walks past campaign boards for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Paris, Thursday June 27, 2024. Voters will choose lawmakers for the National Assembly in two rounds on June 30 and July 7. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

People gather on the Republique Plaza during a rally in Paris, Thursday June 27, 2024. Anti-racism groups joined French unions and left-wing coalition in protests against the surging nationalist far right as French President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections following the defeat of his centrist alliance at European Union elections earlier this month. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

FILE - Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Front party, arrives at the Eurosatory Defense and security exhibition, Wednesday, June 19, 2024 in Villepinte, north of Paris. The perspective of a defeat in parliamentary elections mean he may have to share power with a prime minister from rival political party — that could possibly be far-right National Rally's president Jordan Bardella. Macron defeated twice the National Rally's leader Marine Le Pen in the presidential election, both in 2017 and 2022.( AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron, right, meets French far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) leader Marine Le Pen at the Elysee Palace on June 21, 2022 in Paris. The perspective of a defeat in parliamentary elections mean he may have to share power with a prime minister from rival political party — that could possibly be far-right National Rally's president Jordan Bardella. Macron defeated twice the National Rally's leader Marine Le Pen in the presidential election, both in 2017 and 2022. (Ludovic Marin/Pool photo via AP, File)