Survivors of Hamas festival attack express relief as Israeli hostages head home

In Boston this week, several survivors of Hamas' 2023 terror attack on a music festival in Israel expressed relief and solidarity as the last living hostages were freed.

The release of the 20 hostages Monday, given in exchange for freedom for about 1,700 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, came as part of a peace deal seeking to end the two-year conflict. Last month, the United Nations accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, as the nation's response to Hamas' attack has killed more than 67,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. 

Palestinians and Israelis returning to their respective homes were greeted by cheering crowds and hugs from loved ones, NPR reported.

“It’s a happy day, and we deserve to celebrate that beside the pain and the loss,” said Shahar Horovitz, who survived the festival attack. Hamas fighters killed 1,200 Israelis that day.

Horovitz, 24, came to Boston this week with five other survivors to share their harrowing experiences as part of the "Nova Music Festival Exhibition." According to its website, the traveling showcase was created by the festival's producers and features images, videos and artifacts from the Oct. 7 ambush.

It opened in Tel Aviv last year, and has been traveling to several major cities in the U.S. as well as Canada and Argentina.

Horovitz said she ran through fields to escape Hamas terrorists. 

Since the attack, Horovitz said she has felt "relief" each time more hostages were released, but that she's learned “healing is not linear.” Her message to the freed hostages is “that it’s OK to hurt, and it's OK to feel everything.”

Horovitz said writing a book about her experience helped her process her trauma. The path forward for all survivors, she said, is “going to be a very long, hard road, but we have their backs and we’re here no matter what.”

Tal Mazor said he escaped Hamas' attack by hiding in a synagogue. He said he felt “a mixture of happiness and sadness and excitement” at the peace deal, but also worried about the fate of the bodies of the hostages killed by Hamas.

Under the peace plan, Hamas is required to return the bodies, but NPR reports the group said it will take time to find those buried under rubble. Israel's airstrikes flattened towns across the Gaza strip.

Mazor said he has met several family members of hostages over the years. Seeing the hostages “hugging their own families for the first time in two years, it makes my heart so warm again,” he said.

The exhibition features a wall with pictures of the hostages held in Gaza, beneath the words “Bring Them Home.” Rabbi Marc Baker, president and chief executive of the Boston-based nonprofit Combined Jewish Philanthropies, helped the survivors place "home" stickers on the images of the recently released hostages.

Baker said the horrors of the attack have been “incredibly personal” for the Jewish community in Boston, with some families here having lost loved ones.

"We have members of the community who were connected to hostages," he added, "some of whom will come home, some of whom will never return alive.”