October 7 anniversary: ‘Instead of getting married, they got buried together’

There are families wearing T-shirts picturing their loved ones and friends holding plant pots and flowers.

There is music but it’s a muted tone, where memories are being shared by families of those who were killed in the October 7 massacre.

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I find Michal Bitton standing by two photographs of Maya Bitton and Eliran Mizrahi.

She wants to tell me the love story between her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend.

Michal recalls Eliran sat her and her husband down to say: “I want to marry your daughter and I want your permission.”

Maya called her mum on the morning of October 7 from the Nova music festival to tell her “many terrorists” were around. Eliran texted Michal, saying: “Don’t worry, we will be strong.”

Both of them were later found wrapped in each other’s arms.

Michal told me: “Instead of getting married, they got buried together.”

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Later, an elderly father slowly walks up to me. His son, Sergeant Major Alon Barad, was also killed on duty as a police officer. He showed me videos of his son in action on that morning.

Alon was finishing a night shift at the Nova music festival when he realised the severity of the situation.

Along with other police officers, they closed off an entrance to the site to ensure festivalgoers could escape safely.

Alon and seven other police officers successfully evacuated more than 1,500 people.