The father of a young woman killed during Hamas‘ deadly attack on the Nova music festival in Israel has died by suicide after struggling with the grief.
Vladislav Bongart took his own life in late February after struggling to rebuild his life with his family, his wife told local media after finding his body at their Karmiel home.
His daughter, Sofia, was among 364 people killed during the assault on the trance music festival near kibbutz Re’im on October 7, 2023, when gunmen descended on the site and opened fire, taking a further 40 people hostage.
The 21-year-old and her closest childhood friend, Liraz Nissan, had debated between parties before securing tickets ‘at the last minute’, her mother, Anna, told the Jerusalem Post.
Liraz, 20, died when the Hamas-led group threw grenades into a bomb shelter they were hiding in and started shooting, the Times of Israel reported. Sofia died hours later as she stepped out of the shelter and tried to flee.
Vladislav Bongart had visited his daughter’s white grave to place red roses, per her request, twice weekly ever since. But to colleagues he never spoke about his loss, and ‘refused help’ from others, his widow said.
Anna, with whom he moved to Israel from Ukraine, said he was ‘stuck in the massacre and felt heavy guilt’ that he did not have time to save his daughter as they learned of Hamas’ shock incursion.
‘He was not treated on a mental level because he did not think it would help him,’ she said. ‘He wanted to overcome it himself and couldn’t. The pain was too great.’
Vladislav leaves behind his wife, Anna, and their younger daughter, Evelina.
Sofia was shot dead by gunmen as she tried to flee the assault on the Nova music festival
Her father (back, right) took his own life on February 21, consumed with ‘heavy guilt’
21-year-old Sofia Bongart was four when she moved from Ukraine to Israel with her family
Festivalgoers flee the event amid the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel, Oct 7, 2023
Anna Bongart said she found her husband on February 21 when he did not respond to her calls.
‘I went up to the house, opened the door and realised what had happened,’ she told local media.
‘I thought he must have been asleep on a Friday afternoon, but this is the second time life has knocked me down.’
She said her husband had been depressed since the October 7 attack, but that she ‘never believed’ that he would end his own life.
‘I keep thinking about what would have happened if he had agreed to treatment because the treatment helped me and my little 13-year-old daughter,’ she told Mako.
Vladislav, Anna and Sofia had moved to Israel from Ukraine in 2006, when Sofia was four-years-old.
Vladislav had worked in production for Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, an Israeli defence technology company.
Sofia grew up and completed her mandatory military service in December 2022, enlisting in the IDF after graduating from Ort Psagot High School.
Adi Alon, one of her middle school teachers, described her as a ‘quiet and well-mannered girl’, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Anna (centre, right) said ‘everything was perfect’ before Sofia was killed in Hamas’ attack
Sofia (pictured) and Liraz had debated between two parties before settling on Nova
The young woman was described as ‘quiet and well-mannered’ by a former teacher
A Palestinian militant at the Nova music festival in the Negev desert in Israel, Oct 7, 2023
Sofia and her childhood friend, Liraz, left their home at 3am on October 7 and headed for the festival site.
Her mother told the Jerusalem Post that her daughter was a ‘mature and responsible girl’, and that her only concern was for her safety on the road.
Anna said that her daughter was a ‘good girl’ who ‘never gets into situations she can’t go out of.
‘Because of the war in Ukraine, I go in every morning to check where missiles fell there,’ she told Mako.
But she did not worry about her daughter as she made her way to Nova.
Sofia texted her mother to say she had arrived safely at 6am.
The first sirens sounded just after the break of dawn.
Festivalgoers have since recalled thinking they were watching planned fireworks as Hamas-led forces began their incursion into southern Israel.
An Israeli officer walks around a campsite at the festival near Re’im on October 17, 2023
Destroyed cars are seen at the party site near the Kibbutz Re’im on Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Israeli soldiers surround a Palestinian who ran at them with a knife at the site of a music festival near the border with the Gaza Strip Thursday, October 12, 2023
The pair tried to escape after gunmen stormed the site and began shooting indiscriminately at partygoers.
The last message Anna and Vladislav had from their daughter came at around 8am, ‘saying that she loved us and that she was blessed with us as parents’, Anna told Maariv.
Sixteen of them took shelter in a small concrete bunker after fleeing the festival site, warned it was too dangerous to carry on to kibbutz Be’eri.
Gunmen found the bunker and opened fire at it, throwing grenades inside. Liraz was hit at around 9am.
Sofia waited until 11:30am before making an attempt to escape, but was shot as she stepped outside.
Sofia was buried near her Karmiel home on October 10, 2023.
Her younger sister, Evelina, set up a memorial page on Instagram, where she wrote to her ‘beautiful sister’: ‘What will I do without you, what am I supposed to do now?’
Her mother recounted how therapy had helped her daughter deal with the grief.
Before seeking help, she had stopped eating and would wake up in the night feeling sick.
Festivalgoer Vlada Patapov (left) is seen fleeing the site of the Nova festival massacre on October 7, where Hamas gunmen opened fire on revellers, killing hundreds
Charred and damaged cars along a desert road after an attack by Hamas militants at the Tribe of Nova Trance music festival near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel on Saturday, October 7
But Anna said that her husband had never recovered from the grief of losing their daughter.
‘We put on a mask and carried our pain,’ she told the Jerusalem Post. ‘But Vladislav never shared what he was going through.’
She said her husband did not talk about his loss at work and refused help from others.
‘We were a beautiful family and we had everything,’ Anna told Mako.
‘Everything was perfect before the Black Sabbath. We immigrated to Israel, brought another child into the family, and even saved money and managed to buy an apartment.’
Now, she tells the Jerusalem Post, she will ‘get up and face it’ in spite of her losses.
‘I have to provide for our home.’
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