Haim Cohen, commander of the northern brigade of the Gaza division, arrived at the Nova Festival area in the Re’II parking lot about an hour before the start of the massacre of 7 October 2023. The Israeli press reports it, specifying that Cohen noticed the exceptional turnout of over 4,000 participants and the presence of just two police vehicles to supervise the site and despite the information received during the night and the signals Alert on the possible anomalous movement of Hamas, did he have no further security measures nor evaluated the option to stop the event.
According to the internal investigation of the IDF, the lack of discussion on the festival in the night meetings of the division was a mistake, since a more careful analysis could have led to its cancellation. The report also stresses that Cohen made it wrong not to assign military forces to the area, considered the sensitivity of the place and the high number of civilians present.
Cohen, who was also the officer who signed the preventive authorization to carry out the Festival, later argued that he did not have the complete picture of intelligence before him. In conversations with other officers he explained that he had perceived a false feeling of security, seeing some patrols on the spot, which however proved insufficient. The massacre at the Nova Festival, near Re’im, was the bloodiest of October 7: 378 people were killed and 44 kidnapped.
Many departments on the ground were not even aware of the existence of the event, an information that Cohen had seen in person a few hours before the attack. The Colonel continued to fight in the following days, but in December 2024 he was removed from the position by the Chief of Staff of the time, Herzi Halevi, and a few months later he announced his leave from the army. The IDF has not released official comments on the case.