An October 7 Nova festival survivor was tragically found dead on her 22nd birthday last week as her distraught brother reveals the haunting memories of murder and rape are what led her to taking her own life.
Shirel Golan had been battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following Hamas’ devastating attack on a music festival in southern Israel last year, her brother Eyal Golan said.
She was found dead in her apartment in Porat, near Netanya in northwestern Israel, on her 22nd birthday, on October 20.
Eyal, 36, has now claimed that his sister’s soul was already dead after hiding and listening to Hamas militants murdering and raping her friends for hours on end.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, the heartbroken brother said Golan was full of happiness before the deadly October 7 massacre, ‘but after, it was like someone played with the dimmer on her soul, slowly turning it down until the light died’.
Shirel Golan (pictured) had been battling a post-traumatic stress disorder following the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, before she took her own life, her brother Eyal Golan said
Eyal, 36, has now claimed that his sister’s soul was already dead after hiding and listening to Hamas militants murdering and raping her friends for hours on end
Golan was at Nova festival with her partner Adi when Hamas terrorists descended on the area near Kibbutz Re’im and killed 364 revellers and took 40 hostages more than a year ago.
The couple hid under a bush for hours and narrowly escaped death when they declined to join 11 others in a car as those people were either killed or taken hostage by Hamas shortly after.
‘She heard gunshots, the shouts of people being killed, the shouts of people being raped. She heard every single thing you can imagine,’ Eyal said.
They were rescued by heroic police officer Remo Salman El-Hozayel, who brought them to safety. El-Hozayel had commandeered a car and reportedly saved 200 festivalgoers.
In the weeks following the massacre, Shirel showed symptoms of PTSD like disassociation and withdrawal, her family said, but Eyal is the first to speak publicly about survivor suicides.
The exact number of fatalities is unknown, with the Israeli government refusing to publish a figure.
Eyal believes the government are keeping the statistics private as they do not want to encourage other people to take their own life.
‘I want to break the taboo, or the system will not heal itself. No one wakes up one sunny morning and decides to kill themselves. There is a chain of events that leads to that person committing suicide,’ he told the outlet.
Shirel, left, with her elder brother Eyal, front, his wife Mor, right, and their friend Sam
Shirel was at Nova festival in southern Israel with her partner Adi when Hamas terrorists descended on the area near Kibbutz Re’im and killed 364 revellers more than a year ago
This aerial picture shows abandoned and torched vehicles at the site of the October 7 attack on the Supernova desert music Festival by Palestinian militants near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev desert in southern Israel on October 13, 2023
Festivalgoer Vlada Patapov (left) is seen fleeing the site of the Nova festival massacre on October 7, where Hamas gunmen opened fire on revellers, killing hundreds
Shirel’s devastated brother said that her taking her own life should be a wake up call for the state
Eyal previously said that when he told his sister to look for help when she was feeling low, she told him that she hadn’t received any help from the state.
The only help she had received was from grassroots association Tribe of Nova Community, which was founded by fellow Nova festival survivors and relatives of the victims.
He has blamed the state of Israel for her death, saying that she didn’t get any help, despite being hospitalised for her PTSD symptoms twice.
‘If the state had taken care of her, none of this would have happened. The State of Israel killed my sister twice. Once in October, mentally, and a second time today, on her 22nd birthday, physically,’ he told local media at the time.
Following her funeral, the Golan family are observing shiva – a week of mourning.
But Eyal said he and his family are not ready to give up until the government makes the appropriate changes to support survivors.
‘We failed her. We failed her as a society, we failed her as a family, we failed her as a country,’ he said.
The devastated brother said that her taking her own life should be a wake up call for the state.
Israel’s Welfare and Social Services Ministry reportedly denied the claims that Golan wasn’t taken care of by the state.
It said in a statement that she was ‘recognized and treated in the welfare system even before October 7 and especially after’.
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