US woman’s desperate search for cousin missing after Israel festival: ‘We’re just hoping he somehow got out’

Exclusive: Keren Shimoni tells Andrea Blanco that her missing cousin Ben Shimoni was last seen heading back into the festival site after driving four women to safety

Ben Shimoni (Courtesy of family )

The American cousin of a missing Israeli man, who was last seen helping women to safety as Hamas militants launched a horror attack at a music festival near the border with Gaza, told The Independent their family is desperate for answers.

“The car that he used to save people — that is still on the side of the road smashed up right now — is the car he picks us up at the airport with,” Keren Shimoni, cousin of Ben Shimoni, told The Independent on Wednesday.

Thirty-one-year-old Mr Shimoni was among more than 3,500 festival-goers at the Supernova Festival near Kibbutz Re’im.

The celebration, a marathon trance music event held in honour of the Sukkot festival, came under attack by Hamas terrorist fighters early on Saturday morning as attendees were indiscriminately murdered and taken hostage.

Keren told The Independent that her cousin drove strangers out of harm’s way and managed to escape before he decided to return to the site of the terror.

“We know that he rescued a car with four young women that he dropped off to safety at their home and they all begged him not to go back towards the danger, but he felt called to go and rescue more people,” she said.

“These are four women he didn’t know personally,” Keren said. “We know from them that they begged him to stay in the area that was safe and he went back in to collect more people.”

Mr Shimoni called his girlfriend as he fled. While on the phone with her, he told her hat he had other people in his car. There were loud noises in the background and the call cut off shortly after —four days later, family members have grown increasingly worried as they have not heard from Mr Shimoni since.

Ben Shimoni was last seen at the Supernova Festival rescuing people. His family has not been able to locate him since (Courtesy of family )

“There’s a lot of missing pieces in between when everything started,” Keren told The Independent. “We’re shocked by the situation, but we’re not shocked that Ben would go do what he feels is right, regardless of the risk to himself. That’s within his character.”

An Israeli rescue service told the BBC that its paramedics removed more than 260 bodies from the site of the festival in the Negev desert, while hundreds remain missing. At large, at least 1,200 have been killed in Israel while more than 1,100 have died in Palestine as a result of the ongoing conflict.

Keren described the situation as “surreal,” noting that Israeli officials have not been able to provide any updates. Mr Shimoni’s phone has been found, and his family is reviewing any footage or photos taken at the festival in an attempt to put the pieces together.

“[The government] is really bogged down with so many injured, so many missing, so many dead,” she said. “Our family in Israel is physically safe in their homes or their bomb shelters. However, emotionally we are all wrecked by the news of our family member being missing and not having contact or knowing where he could be.”

The Israeli government has ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack over the weekend, killing hundreds and taking hostages near the Gaza border. The US State Department said that at least 22 Americans have died in the conflict and President Biden confirmed reports of American hostages.

A man reacts outside a burning collapsed building following Israeli bombardment in Gaza City on October 11 (AFP via Getty Images)

Jonathan Conricus, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, said up to 300,000 troops had been deployed to the country’s border with Gaza to make sure Hamas won’t have any “military capabilities” in the future. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said authorities would cut supplies of food, electricity and fuel to the Palestinian enclave.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he has formed a unity government and emergency war cabinet with members of the opposition. Officials said that at least 100 Israelis have been taken as hostages, ABC reports, and a hostage negotiator has been appointed.

Retaliatory attacks launched into Gaza by Israel have destroyed apartments in residential areas and health facilities and have left more than 123,000 people displaced, according to the United Nations. Palestinian authorities have said that the death toll in Gaza has now risen to at least 1,100, including dozens of children.

An Israeli soldier walks by a house destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be’eri on Wednesday, Oct. 11 (AP)

The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland said he is engaging with both parties as well as key stakeholders, but fighting between Hamas and Israel has escalated in the last few days.

Despite all the horrors, Keren isn’t giving up hope yet of hearing from her beloved cousin, whom she often saw in Israel or when he came on trips to the US to visit his family. “We’re extremely close,” she said. “We’re just hoping he somehow got out.”