Haravot Barzel

Advised by Haravot Barzel

On October 7th, 2023, thousands of armed Hamas terrorists tore down large parts of the Gaza security fence using tractors, RPGs and explosives and invaded southern Israel. Simultaneously, Hamas terrorists in Gaza fired thousands of rockets toward Israel. Some 1,500 terrorists successfully broke through the fence in vehicles and by foot. Some used motorized paragliders to fly over the fence, and others attempted to invade through the sea, aiming for Israel’s Zikim Beach. They massacred over 1,400 people, raped young women, brutalized bodies, and abducted 240 innocent people. October 7th will forever be remembered as a dark day in Israel’s history and in humanity’s history The Nova Peace Music Festival hosted 4,000 young people, who at the morning of October 7thwere the victims of a savage mass massacre in which hundreds were executed in cold blood, dozens were forcefully kidnapped to Gaza and hundreds were hospitalized with gunshot wounds. As one can imagine, the survivors of the festival, and this is what they are, were deeply traumatized and are coping with many challenges in terms of their mental health. These days the fund is focusing on establishing an aid project for the victims of the Nova festival. The project will offer a healing and restorative space to young people who were brutally attacked at the festival. The main goal of the project is to create a safe space for a group of people affected by the same incident, with the understanding that the therapeutic power of a group will be a significant part of the treatment process. The hope is that from the activity it will be possible to restore control and connection to everyday life for some of them. To give them tools to deal with the feeling of helplessness that accompanies anxiety, connect them to initiatives and organizations at the individual level and help them create a therapeutic sequence that will reduce the chance of developing post-trauma and damages that will accompany them later in life.