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Exhibit on Oct. 7 Nova Music Festival Massacre to Open in Toronto After Successful NYC Run
Nova survivor Natalie Sanandaji looks at items collected from the Nova festival at “The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th 06:29 AM, The Moment Music Stood Still” on April 18, 2024 in New York City. Photo: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
An exhibit highlighting the victims, survivors, and atrocities that took place during the Hamas terrorist attack at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, will open in Toronto in April, it was announced on Thursday by the human rights organization The Lawfare Project, which is helping to bring the project to Canada for the first time.
“Nova: Oct. 7 6:29 AM, The Moment Music Stood Still” (also known as “The Nova Music Festival Exhibition”) will open in Toronto for six weeks from April 23 through June 8. The interactive and educational exhibit will travel to Canada following a 10-week run in Tel Aviv, where it first opened last year, and a highly successful run in New York City, which was extended “due to the overwhelming demand and excitement,” according to organizers.
Toronto is North America’s third-largest city and has the third-largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel. The venue for the exhibit in Toronto will be announced at a later date, but the installation will take over 60,000 square feet of space and become one of the largest exhibitions in Canadian history, according to The Lawfare Project.
“The Lawfare Project Canada is proud to bring the ‘Nova Music Festival Exhibition’ to Toronto,” said Brooke Goldstein, director of The Lawfare Project Canada. “While the ‘Exhibition’ honors the victims and survivors of the terrorist attack at the Nova Music Festival, it also fosters allyship as it educates and highlights the importance of defending human rights and reaffirming our democratic values.”
Hamas-led terrorists infiltrated the music festival in Re’im, Israel, during the early hours of Oct. 7, 2023, and killed 370 people, including four Canadians, and took as hostages 44 innocent music lovers who were attending the festival. During their deadly rampage across southern Israel that day, terrorists killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 captives.
The “Nova Music Festival Exhibition” honors the horrific atrocities that took place on Oct. 7 but also pays tribute to the resilience of the Tribe of Nova community in the aftermath of the attack. The installation takes visitors through a timeline of the deadly massacre, allowing them to relive the harrowing ordeal from Oct. 7 with the help of real artifacts from the site of the attack, such as burnt vehicles, bullet-stained bathroom stalls, and personal belongings abandoned by music festival attendees. The exhibit offers a recreation of the festival grounds with artifacts that visitors can interact with and showcases first-hand footage from the attack, as well as testimonies from festival survivors and bereaved family members, who will be onsite daily at the exhibit to interact with visitors.
“The story of the Nova Music Festival is one of strength, survival, love and community,” said Jesse Brown, who is the lead Canadian representative of the exhibit coming to Toronto. “This exhibit is to honor and remember the victims while also hearing the heart-wrenching stories of survivors who remind the world that we will dance again.”
“This is not a political statement. It is a reflection of what happened at a festival dedicated to love and peace,” added Evan Zelikovitz, who is also a Canadian representative of the exhibit. “It could have happened to you, your son or daughter or friend,” he said. “Come meet the survivors, meet the bereaved families, and hear about the moment music stood still.”
The “Nova Music Festival Exhibition” was created, curated, and directed by Reut Feingold. Since its opening in Tel Aviv, it has also run in Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, and Miami, and has attracted over 300,000 visitors. Celebrities who have attended the exhibit include Diplo, SIA, Usher, Jessica Alba, Will Ferrell, Kristen Bell, David Schwimmer, and Cindy Crawford, according to The Lawfare Project.
“The Nova community is centered around light, and now more than ever we need to continue to spread that message,” said Ofir Amir, founder and producer of The Nova Music Festival. “It is important, as part of our core values, that we take care of our community, help lead in the rehabilitation of the Nova survivors, and make our voices heard to the whole world.”
The post Exhibit on Oct. 7 Nova Music Festival Massacre to Open in Toronto After Successful NYC Run first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.