Israel has been reeling since Sunday evening after news of the suicide on her birthday of 22-year-old Shirel Golan, who never recovered from the shock of the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023.
Shirel, who turned 22 on Sunday, was supposed to spend the day celebrating with her family, but instead, as noted by the Times Of Israel, she was found dead at her home in Porat while her cellphone was full of phone calls with congratulations and SMS.
Golan's family, led by her brother Eyal, accuses the Israeli government of failing to provide Shirel with help in the past 12 months to deal with post-traumatic stress caused by what she experienced on October 7, 2023.
How he survived the deadly attack by Hamas
Shirel and her partner Andy were at the Nova festival at the time of the Hamas attack.
The two initially got into a vehicle with the intention of leaving the festival, but soon realized, according to Israeli media, that they would not be able to do so. So they abandoned the vehicle and hid for hours under a bush.
At one point, in fact, they were given the opportunity to get into another car whose occupants were trying to escape the fire of Hamas terrorists. However, Shirel and her partner refused to follow them. A little later, the 11 passengers of the vehicle in question were either killed or kidnapped by Hamas, as the 22-year-old confessed in a television interview last November.
Shirel and Andy were eventually rescued by police officer Remo Salman el-Hozayel, who commandeered a vehicle in which he rescued a total of 200 people from the Nova festival while under fire from Palestinian terrorists.
Post-traumatic shock
In the weeks and months following the deadly Hamas attack, Shirel developed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) and was hospitalized twice, though her family says she was never diagnosed with PTSD.
"The state killed Shirel", the 22-year-old's brother Eyal told the Ynet website characteristically.