At the site of the Nova music festival massacre, deep within the Be’eri Forest complex in southern Israel, the landscape has become a living memorial. Following the October 7 attack, families of those killed began arriving on their own initiative. They placed photographs, wrote personal messages and planted flowers at the site. The area, part of a forest complex well known to the Israeli public, was left untouched.
“We decided not to change anything,” said Dr. Michael Sprintsin, a forest engineer with Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael. “Everything remained exactly as it was.”
KKL iron swords forest
(Video: Yaron Sharon)
The only organized intervention came later, when KKL held a large-scale tree planting event for the families of the victims. Each family received a tree and a plaque on which they wrote the name of their loved one. “The newly planted tree symbolizes life,” Sprintsin said. “This is what we do.”
What began as a memorial for those killed at the Nova festival has since expanded. KKL decided to extend the initiative beyond the festival site to include all those who lost their lives during the war.
In the Iron Swords Forest, a designated section has been dedicated to the fallen. Rows of planting pits and small flags mark the area, awaiting families who will plant trees in memory of those killed. “We dedicated this specific part of the forest to those who lost their lives during the war,” Sprintsin said. “The site will be planted by the families of those who were killed.”
For Sharon Nimri, whose daughter, Capt. Eden Nimri, was killed on October 7, standing in the forest carries a message of personal grief and national endurance. “For me, standing here means knowing that our country did not fall apart, was not destroyed, was not ruined,” Nimri said. “We continue here to plant, to build and to fulfill our Zionist dream.”
She described the events of October 7 as a personal and collective catastrophe. “We went through a Holocaust on October 7, and it is a Holocaust that took my daughter from me,” she said. “Eden will be in my heart forever. This is a very difficult day for me, but it is also a day filled with hope.”
The choice to plant trees is not only symbolic but also ecological, Sprintsin explained. Because the area lies on the edge of the desert, the forest cannot regenerate naturally, as it does in more mesic environments. Trees lost to fire or damage do not return on their own.
“Every tree that is lost is simply lost,” he said. “To replace it, we have to plant a new tree.” That act of planting, Sprintsin added, creates a reciprocal process of healing. “We allow people to heal through nature,” he said. “Through this action, we also heal the nature itself.”
'We allow people to heal through nature, through this action, we also heal nature itself.'
Sprintsin, who visits the site almost daily, said the forest’s slow recovery reflects something deeper about Israeli society. “I see how nature regenerates and rehabilitates,” he said. “I think it says a lot about the people of Israel, that after tragedy, blood and suffering, we can regenerate and heal ourselves through nature and also as a nation.”
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Families of those killed began arriving on their own initiative, Nova music festival site
(Photo: Adi Israel)
Looking ahead, he said the transformation will be visible to anyone who returns. “If you come back here in five years, you will see the forest as it was before,” Sprintsin said. “Large, healthy trees that create a good environment, make people happy and give society everything that a healthy forest should give.”
*In collaboration with KKL-JNF