FATAL MISTAKE

Israeli Forces Killed Music Festival-Goer Mistaken for Hamas Fighter: Report

Ofek Atun was reportedly shot multiple times by a volunteer kibbutz security guard. His girlfriend and the kibbutz disagree on what happened.

Israeli forces shot and killed a music festival attendee who they mistakenly believed was a Hamas fighter, Haaretz reported. Ofek Atun, 24, was attending Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 when the bloody Hamas attack started. He and his girlfriend Tamar ran to nearby Kibbutz Alumim for refuge and broke into an elderly couple’s house for shelter when the old couple, hiding in another room, called the community’s volunteer security squad on them. Atun was shot several times by one of these responding Israeli guards, but his girlfriend and the kibbutz have different accounts of what happened: The kibbutz claimed its volunteers “noticed the late Ofek charging towards them holding a knife in his hand, and unfortunately they shot him dead,” while Tamar said he was killed with no “prior struggle.” The incident is not the first time Israelis have been mistaken for Hamas and killed by their own countrymen—in December, the IDF killed three white flag-waving escaped hostages it mistook for enemy fighters.