Oct. 7 Attack Survivor Tells Story, Describes Peril

Rabbi Seth Linfield of Hillel opened the February 20 event “We Will Dance Again” with a stark injunction: “At every moment something sacred is at stake…” Invoking the famous Yale chaplain Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Linfield continued: “The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.”

The February 20 event, hosted by Dartmouth’s Hillel and Chabad organizations, provided a compelling forum for one Matan Boltax, a survivor of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. Some 200 people were present to hear Boltax’s remarks and reminiscences. After the event, attendees assembled at the Chabad House for a dinner with Boltax.

Boltax began his talk by providing some facts of his life: He’s a 23-year-old who hails from New York, and he moved to Israel in 2009. He ultimately served in the Israel Defense Forces as a sniper for three years until November 2022. 

Boltax then presented a story that gave context to the Nova Music Festival on October 7 in western Negev, an area with several kibbutzim near the Gaza border. There were roughly 4,000 people in attendance at the festival. 

Boltax left his family’s Friday night dinner shortly after midnight to go to the festival, where he was to camp out with friends. He arrived in the desert at 2 a.m. He recalled festival-goers dressed in colorful clothing celebrating the last day of Shemini Atzeret, a Jewish holiday commemorating the end of Sukkot. At 6:30 in the morning, a crowd started to amass on the dance floor. Before they could register what exactly was happening, Boltax and his friends looked up to the sky to see rockets flaring in their direction. The sight of rockets was not unusual for him, nor was it unusual for his friends, and initially they were not entirely shocked by the sight. The pulsing psytrance of the rave drowned out any noise coming from above. 

Sharing images from the concert, Boltax described the palpable shift in the energy of the crowd as the rocket fire became overwhelming. With his experience serving near the Gaza Border, he was less scared of the mounting firestorm than were some concertgoers. Panic set in among the crowd, and hurried masses began fleeing the scene, leaving behind their cars, belongings, and each other. The rational options for Boltax were limited: sit in a tent and wait, or sit in standstill traffic and wait. At the time, he cracked a joke to his friends about driving to their deaths. When Boltax recounted this aside, its morbidity far exceeded any intrinsic humor.

Boltax remained at his tent for a short time, waiting for the festival grounds to clear out. At 7 in the morning, the police came to inform him and his friends that the attack was extremely serious, advising that they depart the festival grounds as soon as possible. Boltax and the others quickly packed their things, made a concerted effort to remain calm, and headed towards the highway. At this point in his account, Boltax’s speech became more hurried and detached; he was clearly recalling the first of the many traumatic moments of the day. 

The police had blocked the north route from the festival, and cars driving in that direction were left with bullet holes, their passengers visibly injured. At this sight, many left their cars and began running away. Boltax described the distinct sound of AK-47 fire—these were not guns used in the Israeli army, and so he knew enemy fire when he heard it. Even more, he detected that the enemies were moving in his direction. 

Boltax and his friends rationalized that, surely, the firestorm would end in a matter of hours. They worked carefully to plan their escape. The police advised everyone to flee as far east as they could. 

Without any strong idea of where they were going, they drove a mile east amidst a mass of racing cars. All communication was inaccessible, and Google Maps wasn’t a viable option as they had no internet connection. After their first mile, the road curved significantly. The cars at the front of the pack suddenly made U-turns, presumably to escape whatever lay beyond the curve. 

Nonetheless, Boltax and his friends went around the curve, whereupon two Hamas trucks with mounted guns came into their field of vision. An old couple was crouched on the side of the road frozen in fear. Boltax and his friends sought to get the couple out of harm’s way and pulled them into their vehicle. Despite his own clearly noble action, Boltax declared that “[w]hoever was a hero that day is, sadly, either seriously injured or not with us today.”

Speeding away, Boltax and company found a public bomb shelter on the side of the road. They entered the shelter, which happened to be empty due to its great distance from the campsite. After a brief pause in the gunfire, Boltax took note of his surroundings and realized they were near a town where one of his friends lived. This was a great relief to Boltax, who proceeded to jump the fence to enter the town. But Boltax soon recognized that he and his group might be mistaken for terrorists. 

They knocked on the first door they saw, and the family inside let them enter and stay until sundown. All sat in the bomb shelter of the house, which doubled as the room of the family’s young daughters. The room was cramped, and Boltax began to feel like a sitting duck. 

Stuck in a bomb shelter-bedroom in an unfamiliar town, Boltax and his friends received messages notifying them that they had been called up for duty in the military.  

Eventually, local authorities accompanied Boltax and his friends to the main road and then on their drive home. At this point, the audience was struck silent by the photographs in the background showing car crashes piled up along the side of the road. 

Bringing his story to a close, Boltax described the experiences of his friends that day. One young man, Aner, was killed when Hamas terrorists threw hand grenades into the shelter where he was staying. Of the eight hand grenades thrown into the shelter, Aner threw out seven; the eighth exploded in his hand. Absorbing most of the impact, Aner saved almost all thirty people occupying the bomb shelter at that time.

Another of Boltax’s friends, Hersh, has been held captive by Hamas since October 7. 

Gal, a young woman, escaped gunfire directed at her car and drove first to a bomb shelter before going to the hospital. Portions of a car door were lodged into her neck. Gal was at the festival to sell her handmade hats. 

Boltax paused somberly to reflect that “this is the first time Jews have had to hide, in their country, since the Holocaust.” 

Describing his life and the broader experience in Israel since October 7, he discussed his time in the reserve unit. Before the October 7 event, Boltax characterized anti-government protests as fueled by animosity. After the attack, he said, Israel has been more united.

When asked about his motivation for coming to the United States to talk and share his story, he replied that he is acting as a volunteer on this trip through the organization Faces of October Seventh. He wishes to share the stories of those who have felt great pain. 

“We Will Dance Again” ended as it began: on a somber note. This was a young man, telling his story, praying for his message to reach an important audience.