Survivor of deadly terror attack on music festival in Israel shares his story in Boston
BOSTON - A man who survived the deadly attack on a music festival in Israel that triggered the war in Gaza in October 2023 is in Boston, where he's sharing his story.
Best friend taken hostage
Din Tesler and his best friend Bar Kupershten were security guards at the Nova Music Festival. The event became a key target the day Hamas attacked.
"First we heard rockets, but for us it was just another day with rockets. We are used to it in Israel," said Tesler. "From the right, we saw a lady and she got out from the car and she was bleeding from the head. Then I started to think, it's more than just rockets."
Tesler is former Israeli Special Forces, while Kupershten is a medic. The two began to triage victims.
"Just tourniquet after tourniquet, from the second, third, fifth, 10, to 20," remembered Tesler.
The police told them to open more exits for people to flee. As they started to do so, they spotted terrorists in front of them. He said that's when the gunshots began.
"At that point my best friend said, 'Din go inside to the festival.' I start running inside the festival, but he decided to stay," explained Tesler.
He said Kupershten stayed with police, and was then taken hostage.
"From that moment till today, one year and four months, I haven't seen him again," said Tesler, sitting next to a poster of Kupershten that said, "Bring him home now!"
As a security guard, and former military, Tesler said he felt responsible to help people. He took a group of festivalgoers and fled toward the woods.
"From bush to bush, from hide out to hide out, unfortunately after one hour in hell, terrorists shoot on us, and most of them just died in front of me," said Tesler.
Recorded goodbye videos to loved ones
Using his military training, Tesler kept running in a zig-zag pattern to avoid the bullets, and then crawled into a cactus.
"I tried to hide deeper and deeper. There were screaming of Israeli people begging, 'Don't kill me.' Without a weapon, I knew I didn't have a way to help them," said Tesler.
For nine hours he laid there, listening to people die. He was convinced he too was going to die, so he began recording goodbye videos to his friends and family.
"One thirty-five, I film myself, I was telling myself I'm going to die, 2:24 my phone battery died. After that, I can tell you every second," said Tesler.
Terrorists made their way into his cactus. Tesler simply closed his eyes and prayed.
"At that time, I was completely accepting my death. I closed my eyes looking at the sky. I saw my whole life in front of me," explained Tesler.
Somehow, they didn't see him, and eventually he made a run for it. After 40 minutes of running, he found Israeli soldiers who took him to safety. Kupershten remains a hostage.
"And honestly I just want to hug him. One hug that will fix a lot of things in my heart and my soul," said Tesler.
He says Kupershten was seen alive in one of the first hostage videos posted online by Hamas. Now Telser is touring the U.S. and telling their story with the hope that it helps to bring his friend back. He would like to tell it to President Donald Trump.
"I really hope that they will help us to bring all of the hostages back home. And after that, if they want to take control of Gaza, I can just tell them two words, 'Good luck,' because it's not like people think it is," said Tesler.
