‘A REAL HERO’

American Man Charged at Hamas Militants to Save His Friends, Aunt Says

Addir Mesika died in Hamas’ surprise attack on a music festival in Israel.

A 23-year-old American was killed by Hamas militants along with several of his friends following an attempt to protect the unarmed group when an Oct. 7 music festival in Israel was attacked, his family told Fox News. Addir Mesika, who attended the festival with his friends, his girlfriend, and another woman, were in their tents at the end of the event when they heard rocket sirens, his aunt, Morielle Lotan, told Fox. The group quickly drove to a bomb shelter, but when they heard Hamas militants approaching, Mesika and one of his friends told the women in their group to hide and charged at the intruders as a distraction, Lotan said. The men were killed in the resulting gunfire, but the women, who stayed in the shelter for six hours, were saved by Israel Defense Forces, she said. Lotan called Mesika “a real hero” and said he “knew what his end was going to be, and did it anyway.” She said 3,000 people came to Mesika’s funeral and he would have wanted them to not forget “that there is a day after and that we have to be thinking about that day after now.”