On the night of Friday, October 6th, 2023, sisters Norelle and Roya Manzuri gathered with their family for a festive meal to mark the Jewish festival of Simchat Torah. As they celebrated, the conversation turned to Norelle’s wedding plans – at 25, she was engaged to marry Amit Cohen the following year. Her younger sister Roya (22) shared in the excitement.
After dinner, the dual US-Israeli citizens prepared to drive south from Hod Hasharon, a city in the centre of Israel, to the Nova music festival with Amit and friends. The outdoor venue near Kibbutz Re’im lay just kilometres from the Gaza border. As they left, their mother Sigal gave Amit a simple instruction: look after the girls.
She would never see her daughters again.
“At 6:29 we were awakened by sirens. We called the girls and they were lying down covering their heads as the rockets flew in. Ten minutes later Norelle called us and said they had managed to reach their car,” recalls Sigal.
But the road north towards home was blocked as Hamas gunmen were in the area shooting at vehicles. The road towards Kibbutz Re’im was also blocked so the three of them, along with two other friends in the car, including Gal, the girls’ cousin, ran into a roadside bomb
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