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An Israeli survivor of the Oct. 7 Nova music festival massacre — who witnessed the execution of his girlfriend — committed suicide just days after the tragic second anniversary.
Roei Shalev, 28, was found dead in a burning car on a highway exit near Netanya on Friday evening, The Jerusalem Post reported.
CCTV footage captured Shalev at a gas station filling a canister with fuel shortly before his body was found, according to the report.
Shalev with his girlfriend Mapal Adam who was killed during the Oct.7, 2023 terrorist attack at Nova music festival. Roei Shalev / Instagram
The traumatized survivor shared a goodbye message on his Instagram page prior to the grisly immolation — describing the pain and loss he has felt since the massacre that took his partner.
“I’m truly sorry. I can’t bear this pain any longer,” Shalev said in a heartbreaking message to Instagram Friday, the outlet reported. “I’m burning inside, and I can’t contain it anymore.
“Never in my life have I felt such pain and suffering — deep, burning, eating me from within. I just want this suffering to end. I’m alive — but inside, I’m already dead.”
On Oct. 7, 2023, Shalev was wounded during the Hamas attack on the Nova festival near Re’im, which he attended with his girlfriend 25-year-old Mapal Adam, according to The Times of Israel.
They hid under a truck and played dead for hours as blood-soaked chaos raged around them — until one terrorist fatally shot Adam at close range.
An image of Shalev in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. Roei Shalev / InstagramShalev was shot twice while attempting to protect his girlfriend but survived.
In a 2024 Youtube interview, Shalev recounted the horrific day.
Shalev said he and Adam said “I love you” and closed their eyes to play dead just minutes before a Hamas militant approached and shot each of them.
“They disappeared and I opened my eyes — Mapal is next to me in a pool of blood. She get bullet in her heart.”
Just days after the Oct. 7 massacre, Shalev’s mother committed suicide, also setting her car on fire, according to Israeli public broadcaster KAN.
The Nova Tribe Community organization, which represents survivors and families of the victims of the music festival massacre, mourned Shalev’s passing.
“Roei was the backbone of the community and his death is inconceivable news for us,” the group said in a statement posted to Facebook.
“The Nova Tribe Community Foundation bows its head with a broken heart and deep sorrow, over the untimely death of its Roei, a community member who passed away under traigc circumstance.”
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