A Nova Festival Survivor Shares His Miraculous Escape and Powerful Faith Journey

Barak Nixon, a survivor of the October 7 massacre, gave an interview to Kol Chai in which he described the miracles that accompanied him as he fled from the Nukhba terrorists — events that, he says, are difficult for the human mind to grasp.

On Saturday morning, Nixon was attending the Nova festival when bullets suddenly began whistling overhead. The participants all found themselves in a terrifying escape for their lives. As Nixon tried to get into a car where his friends had already climbed in, he noticed two helpless young women nearby and decided to stay behind to help them. Minutes later, the friends he had planned to join were killed inside that very car — a fate he narrowly avoided because he chose to remain and assist the two women.

A Split Second That Saved His Life

Later, when they were already traveling in another vehicle, Nixon again made a split second decision to step out in order to help another young woman who was pleading for assistance. Seconds after he exited the car, a direct RPG missile struck the vehicle and destroyed it completely.

The chase continued toward the Gaza border fence, with terrorists disguised as IDF soldiers firing from every direction. Barak, a former Golani fighter, realized that ordinary military logic would not help him survive this situation.

A Personal Covenant With God

At the height of the chaos, he lifted his eyes to the heavens and made a personal covenant with God. “I said, ‘Master of the Universe, I was taught that when a Jew needs help, he can turn to You. If I return to my parents alive, and my mother does not have to cry over me, I promise to be Your best child.’”

With bullets passing only centimeters from his body and striking the trees behind which he hid, he kept running into the unknown.

Eight and a Half Hours of Fear and Faith

According to him, the most extraordinary moments occurred inside a small portable toilet where he hid together with two young women for eight and a half hours of terror. “The terrorists went from stall to stall and shot,” he recalled, describing the moments when he heard the screams of people in the neighboring units.

When they reached the stall where he was hiding, they fired three shots at head height — miraculously passing just above them. Even a Molotov cocktail that was thrown inside landed directly in the toilet bowl and went out without harming them. “I came out of that stall with nothing but faith,” he said, tears in his eyes.

The Rescue and a New Beginning

When IDF forces eventually arrived and rescued him, Barak was told that he and the two young women were the last survivors left alive in that area of the massacre. The difficult sights he witnessed on the way out left him with no doubt that his promise to God had to be fulfilled.

The very next day, with only 200 shekels in his pocket, he made his way to Meah Shearim. Since then, he has been studying in the yeshiva of Rabbi Shlomo Ofer, deeply immersed in Torah learning.

A Spiritual Transformation

The spiritual transformation spread to his entire family, who strengthened their observance of Shabbat and mitzvot following his miraculous rescue. At the end of the interview, he shared his personal joy: in just 13 days, he would be standing under the wedding canopy as a groom.

“I don’t just believe — I know that God exists,” he concluded with certainty, speaking as someone who faced death and found within it his own personal light of hope. “I saw Him before my eyes, and I understood that He is real,” he said.