Grieving Israelis returned to the site of the Nova music festival in Re'im to mourn hundreds who were killed and taken hostage by Hamas fighters on October 7.
It has been almost three months since the Palestinian militant group carried out a massacre at the festival in southern Israel, killing 364 civilians, mostly young people.
The killing spree was part of events that sparked the ongoing conflict in the Gaza strip.
Hamas also took 40 hostages in the festival raid, which took place during the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret.
Israel's onslaught in Gaza has since killed more than 22,600 people, more than two-thirds of them women and children, according to the territory's Health Ministry. The ministry's count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The Nova festival site has now become a memorial for victims, with placards of their faces visited by mourners on Friday.
Israeli man Nadav Hanan had been at the music festival and told the Guardian on Thursday that concert goers knew something was up when they saw the anti-missile defence system in action.
"After we saw the rockets, my girlfriend and my mum, who had heard the alarms, called and told me to come home," he said.
"There were two guys, really frightened. They told us they had got as far as a gas station where they were shot at. It was hard to believe.
"I served as a combat soldier in this area. If terrorists had come through, I was thinking, it would be half an hour then it would be over.
"You could hear the bullets whistling and hitting the sand," he added. "I had a physical sensation that I had this giant target on my back that was getting bigger. I could hear screams but I thought, if I look back I’m dead."
As the conflict continues this week, Israel has pledged to defend itself at the International Court of justice (ICJ) against South Africa’s claims that it is committing "genocidal acts" in Gaza.
In addition, Boris Johnson has criticised a Met Police investigation into alleged war crimes carried out by Israel in Gaza.
Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv an exhibit has been set up to recreate the Nova massacre in detail with the goal of providing healing.
"It really brings me back there and the horrific pain of that moment, but we have to return there to memorialise what happened and remember our friends who were killed there," a visitor told the Jerusalem Post.
