Shelly Shem-Tov has kept her son’s bedroom exactly as messy as he left it on the night of Oct. 6 when he went to attend a music festival just a few miles east of the Gaza Strip. That bedroom has become a shrine of sorts; a place she visits every morning to pray and find hope for her son’s safe return.
At 21 years old, Omer Shem-Tov was among hundreds of young adults partying at the weekend-long Supernova Music Festival near the Negev Desert community of Re'im on Oct. 7 when the event came under attack by Hamas gunmen crossing over from Gaza.