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For Mazal Tazazo, October 7 2023 started as an incredibly exciting day. The mood was high at the Nova music festival in southern Israel, approximately five kilometres from the border with Gaza.
Mazal and her two friends, Daniel and Yochai, were all avid music fans and had been enjoying the two-day festival, getting ready to mark the final day of the event.
"Everyone there was having so much fun, people of all backgrounds. I was so happy," Mazal tells Mamamia.
A single mother to a nine-year-old boy who she says is her "whole life", Mazal had dropped her child off with her ex-husband before heading to the festival. Her son was in the centre of Israel, an area considered safe.
Their goodbye was like any other.
Mazal with her son in happier times. Image: Supplied.