In memory of their fallen friend: Security guards kidnapped from Nova festival return to the site

Three survivors of captivity, Bar Kuperstein, Eitan Mor, and Rom Braslavsky, arrived yesterday, Sunday, at the Nova festival site in Re'im to commemorate their security team colleague, Elyakim Libman. The three worked together providing security at the party, and during the attack, they assisted partygoers and the wounded until they were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. In a photo shared by Mor, a close friend of Libman, he noted that this was the first time he had returned to the site since his release from captivity.

Bar Kuperstein, Eitan Mor, and Rom Braslavsky were part of the security team at the Nova festival. When the attack began, instead of fleeing, the three acted to assist partygoers, evacuate the wounded, and rescue people from the area. Mor and Braslavsky continued rescue operations throughout the day, including moving the bodies of victims to a hiding place. Later, when Mor sought to return to the area to search for his friend Elyakim Libman, he and Rom were captured and kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.

Elyakim Libman, their colleague and Eitan's close friend, remained to treat the wounded under fire and was killed when an RPG missile hit the ambulance he was in. Mor and Libman were close friends from childhood, grew up in Kiryat Arba, and served together in the army.

For 210 days, Libman was listed as a hostage, until in May 2024 his remains were located in a grave where one of the Nova victims had been buried by mistake. After identification, he was reburied at the old cemetery in Hebron. Known to his family as "Robin Hood," he was a man who always rushed to help the weak. In an interview held after his return, Mor said that after about six months in captivity, he heard Elyakim's father say in an interview that he was a hostage. About three months later, he saw a report on Al Jazeera that Elyakim had been murdered and "did not eat for several days out of grief."