Oded Abergel, 26, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7, 2023.

Abergel, a resident of Merkaz Shapira in Israel’s south, came to the rave to help build a small stage for the performances. He planned to meet his friend, Noa Yifrach, when he got there, but the two didn’t connect before Hamas began its brutal attack on the partygoers.

Yifrach called Abergel in the early morning, as soon as she heard shooting.

“He answered me straight away and calmed me down,” Yifrach said to Channel 12 news. “He’s from the south and I’m from the north, and I reacted to the incident differently from him.”

“He was very practical. He told me, ‘Noa, the party is shutting down. Go calmly to pack up your things,'” she said.

The pair continued to text throughout the attack, keeping track of each other’s whereabouts until Abergel stopped responding while he hid under the music festival stage.

“I made dozens of calls to Oded that remained unanswered,” Yifrach said. “At the same time, a van was already picking us up, along with dozens of other survivors, towards Patish, to the community center where I collapsed. I saw all the wounded arrive there, full of blood, and I understand the magnitude of the event — and Oded still wasn’t answering.”

The next person to come across Abergel found him lifeless under the stage. May Hayat, 30, who sought cover in the same hiding place, saw his body. Next to him was his phone, ringing with a call from Yifrach.

Hayat took some of the blood from his body and smeared it across her face, playing dead. She lay there for two hours as his phone continued to ring.

“I was terribly afraid. But the whole time I looked at Oded, who had a small smile, which gave me a lot of hope and strength,” Hayat recalled.

Until Yifrach stumbled upon Hayat’s testimony of October 7 on social media, she and the Abergel family clung to the hope that Oded might still be alive.

“I sent her [Hayat] pictures of Oded, and she identified him unequivocally and left no room for doubt,” said Yifrach. “‘That’s him, I’ll never forget his face,’ she told me.”

The Shafir Regional Council website’s tribute to Abergel describes him as “a special person with endless giving, who loved life and knew how to live it.”

Born to Yisca and Asher Abergel, Oded grew up in Merkaz Shapira under the Shafir Regional Council. He was the youngest of seven siblings: Itamar, Nadav, Neta, Naama, Nitai and Liel.

“Even at the time [of the massacre] we know that he guided his friends to save them from hell. Even in his death, he helped a girl he didn’t know. Oded died a hero,” wrote his sister Naama Cohen.

Abergel’s funeral was held in Masu’ot Yitzhak on October 15.

“We will always remember you for your amazing smile and happy heart,” wrote Oded’s brother Nadav on Facebook.
Source: The Times of Israel