One of the thousands of heartbreaking stories is the story of Alon Ohel, our nephew.

 Alon went to The Nova festival near kibbutz Re’im with four of his best friends. They arrived to the party at 5:30, when an hour later the rockets started firing. They returned to their car and started driving north, but were stopped by policemens who blocked the road because of shooting at vehicles. Alon and his friends were forced to turn back and reached the shelter at the entrance of Kibbutz Re’im where they were staying  a total of 27 young men and women (including a pregnant woman).  At 8:08 we received the last message from him that they are fine and they are in the shelter.  A few minutes later, Hamas terrorists arrived to the shelter and threw several stun grenades into it.  The late Avner Shapira was able to push some of them out, until one grenade exploded inside the shelter and hit many. In the chaos, Hamas terrorists entered the shelter, kidnapped Alon and two other young men. After that, the terrorists entered the shelter and fired to make sure the others were dead.

 After a few hours, a citizen arrived looking for survivors and removed 7 wounded from the shelter.  He evacuated them to the hospital.  Alon’s cell phone apparently fell while he was kidnapped and arrived at the Soroka hospital with one of the survivors. Alon’s sister kept calling him the whole time, and around 14:00  we were told that the cell phone had arrived with the wounded people to Soroka. Alon’s father and uncle went there hoping to find Alon as well,  But he was not there.

 The remaining 17 young men and women were no longer alive.  Two of Alon’s best friends were murdered in the shootout and two were wounded, but survived.  The family received the information about the abduction from his friends who survived.  Two weeks later, a video also arrived showing Alon being dragged on the road and loaded into a van.

 Since then, we have not received any new information about him.