Shirel Golan, Oct. 7 survivor, committs suicide

Shirel Golan, who survived the massacre perpetrated at the Nova music festival during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, was found dead in her apartment this Sunday, her 22nd birthday.

The family of Shirel, who is survived by her parents and four older siblings, said the young woman had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which led her to take her own life.

Eyal, her brother, said that on Oct. 7 of last year, the day of the massacre perpetrated by Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in southern Israel, she sent a message to the family WhatsApp group. "She replied that everything was fine." He added: "At first she got into a car with friends, but at some point she decided to get out. She had a bad intuition about that car. It turned out that later, everyone in that car was killed. They killed 11 people in there. It was a death car. She got into a car with a policeman. He took her to [the southern community of] Kfar Maimon and that's how she was saved."

Eyal also maintained that he could notice symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in his sister, which led her to "avoid social contact and isolate herself."

The young woman's brother further noted that Shirel "reached a depressed state" for which she was hospitalized twice.

‘I gave her a hug and a kiss. I never imagined it would be her last’

Eyal added that on Thursday of last week he asked her how she was feeling, and she replied that she was fine. "I gave her a hug and a kiss. I never imagined it would be the last," he said.

Eyal indicated that his sister was scheduled to travel this Sunday with her parents to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. "She didn't want to go out with them and said she wanted to continue sleeping," he said. And he noted that because it was her birthday she received many messages on WhatsApp but did not respond. "They tried to contact her and couldn't. They called her ex-boyfriend and asked him to go check on her. He arrived at her house and saw that she had taken her own life," he recounted.

Israeli authorities expressed their "deep sorrow" over Shirel's death

Israel's Welfare and Social Security Ministrymanifested its "deep sorrow at the untimely death of the Nova survivor and shares the grief of the family and the entire Nova community." It added that the ministry, along with National Insurance funds and other partners, including the Tribe of Nova Foundation, offer a comprehensive support program for survivors of the massacre and called on survivors and their families who need help to contact authorities.