Ilan Avraham was murdered by Hamas during the October 7 massacre, outside the agricultural community of Yakhini where he and his wife had escaped from the assault on the Nova music festival.
Avraham and his wife Ayala arrived at the festival at dawn to participate in the outdoor raves they loved so much. "I will never forget that day," Ayala says. "I remember every minute of it from the moment we left home. I remember the screams and the face of the terrorist."
Just 30 minutes after they arrived at the Nova festival, sirens sounded as a massive rocket attack began. The couple tried to escape but were stuck in the line of cars, all trying to do the same. "Someone suggested we try to get out through the Beit Kama intersection," Ayala recalls. "We thought the white pickup truck that stopped ahead of us was a security vehicle, until we saw the terrorists get out and open fire."
Ilan tried to back away and drive against traffic, but the car took a direct hit and ground to a halt. The couple ran into Yakhini, hoping to find cover. Two locals directed them to a shelter, and Ayala thought they were safe. But then Ilan stepped out to go to the car. "Suddenly, the terrorists appeared. He ran back, kissed me on the forehead, and hugged me. 'You will be fine,' he said and walked out of the shelter to face the terrorists."
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The terrorists grabbed Ilan and demanded that he knock on doors and call the residents out. He refused and was murdered on the spot. Ayala and her friend Shani were hiding in the shelter when the terrorists found them. "I told them I had children at home," she recalls. "He took my phone, hit me with the stock of his gun and dragged both of us toward the gate. When it opened, we decided to make a run for it." The two hid behind a nearby car, as shots were fired toward them, until IDF forces arrived and rescued them. "If they had come a minute later, we would not be speaking now," Ayala says.
Hamas terrorists at the gate to Yakhini during the Oct. 7 massacre
Ilan's body was identified only three weeks later. He was 49, a colorful man, an avid gardener who was loved by all and a dedicated family man. He and Ayala often spent their weekends going to outdoor raves. Some 2,500 people attended his funeral, all of them wearing colorful clothes, the kind that he loved. "We set up a community in his memory. Ilan's Community of Colors," Ayala says. "We continue in his spirit."
Ilan was known as the chief of Israel's trance music enthusiasts' tribe. Ayala and their daughter Ofek attended a trance festival in Hungary and set up a compound in his memory there. "People from all over the world came up to us to show us photos that they had with my father," Ofek says. "It was crazy. We had no idea how many people he had touched."