'We need to show the world what happened here,' says DJ who plays set at music venue in memory of 364 victims murdered by Hamas

Israeli Disc Jockey Asher Swassi, who goes by the stage name DJ Skazi, along with a number of other Israeli DJs from the Israeli electronic music scene, returned to the venue of the NOVA Music Festival at Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel to honor the 364 victims who were brutally slaughtered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.

DJ Skazi set up his equipment on the same stage that was used during the NOVA festival but this time he played to an empty field filled with wooden posts which held photos of the 364 Israelis, most of them young, who were massacred by Hamas on Oct. 7, when the terrorists and their accomplices stormed the festival during the October 7 massacre; ruthlessly raping, murdering and abducting the attendees.  

An Israeli flag made out of sunflowers was placed in front of the photos of the murdered.

“Today's festival had no physical attendees, just their 364 living memories,” Jewish Breaking News posted on X, formerly Twitter.

As the DJ performed his set to an audience no longer able to dance, the memories of those victims were honored. 

DJ Skazi told Sky News: “These guys, all of them are ravers, and I think they want, in their legacy even, this party to go on. We are in Israel, we are happy people, you know, even when we have a big war and we have a big, big crisis, we try to take it in the maximum positive way," he said.

"And I think all of the people who were killed here, murdered here, I think this is what they want us to do for their soul. They want us to play for them music, they want us to remember them,” DJ Skazi said.

Another DJ said they were returning to the site of the NOVA festival massacre to show the world what happened on Oct. 7.

“We need to show the world what happened here and that everybody will understand who is right and who is wrong,” the unnamed DJ said.

Earlier this month, the Israeli Ministry of Justice told members of the Knesset that “quite a few” of the surviving festival attendees needed to be hospitalized in mental health institutions because of their horrific experiences during the surprise invasion and massacre by Hamas.

About a month ago, the Israeli electronic music community united together to raise money for the survivors of the terrorist attack at the festival by making and selling a compilation album of 50 music tracks.

“In one day already we raised 110,000 shekels,” DJ Skazi told i24 news at the time.

“The festival was meant to be a celebration of love and freedom, but it ended in a murderous terrorist attack,” said Omri Sassi and Nimrod Arnin the organizers of the event. Both organizers lost family members at the festival on Oct. 7; Sassi lost four relatives, while Arnin lost his sister.

About two weeks ago, the two men held a concert in Kibbutz Sdot Yam near Caesarea to pay tribute to the murdered Nova party attendees.

“We love the country. We will dance again and that will be our victory,” they said.