Karin Journo, 24, was looking forward to the tribe of Nova music festival for the first time in her life. She and her French-Israeli friend had planned to celebrate her friend’s move to the United States, but just one week before the event, she was targeted by Hamas militants who turned the festival into a killing zone.
Karin Journo had originally decided not to go to the festival due to a broken right leg, but when she found out that a group of friends were going instead, she decided to buy another ticket. On the eve of the event, she posted a selfie of herself in a pair of black shorts and a halter top. Her long dark hair had been left untied and her nails had been painted bright red. In the selfie, she was wearing her party gear and was ready to dance. And dance she did. In a video shot from that night, she was dancing to the beat of the music, but she was frozen in place by a gray boot that encircled her right leg from the ankle down to her knee.
Who Was Karin Journo?
A video of the night in question shows Karin clapping her hands to the rhythm of the music, although she was frozen in place by a gray protective boot that encircled her right leg and calf up to the knee. This makes her easily identifiable in subsequent videos recorded as Hamas launched its deadly assault. In one of the videos, she is seen hiding behind a vehicle with a friend. Her face is contorted in concern as explosions are heard in the background. In another, she is seen anxiously looking around in an ambulance. In the last video, she is seen standing in front of an open door of a vehicle where two people are lying motionless in the vehicle.
According to Doron, Karin’s father, his daughter’s last text to family and friends was dated Saturday morning, 8:43. “To all of you,” she wrote, “I’m not coming home. I love you all very much.” Doron says the family hasn’t heard from her since. “We don’t know if she’s alive or dead,” he says. “My daughter didn’t go to war,” Doron adds. “She went to dance.” Karin Journo’s story is a stark reminder of the human cost of war: a young woman just trying to enjoy herself with friends, only to be killed in a vicious attack. Our hearts go out to the Journos and all those affected.
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