Natan Kenig, 48, a longtime volunteer with Zaka, says daily flashbacks of the October 7, 2023 attacks drove him to seek therapy and left him with what he calls "a deep scar." After rushing to the Nova music festival he helped survivors and spent months recovering remains through February 2024. A former catering chef, he can no longer work with smoked meats and now keeps photos and videos to bear witness. Despite the trauma, he says he is determined to live and to preserve the record for future generations.
“A Deep Scar”: Zaka Rescuer Natan Kenig Still Haunted Three Years After October 7
A volunteer of the Zaka Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jewish emergency response team searches through the debris in Kibbutz Beeri near the border with Gaza on October 20, 2023, in the aftermath of an attack by Palestinian militants on October 7 (RONALDO SCHEMIDT)
Natan Kenig, a 48-year-old volunteer with the Orthodox rescue group Zaka, says only a small trigger is enough to plunge him back into the chaos of the October 7, 2023 attacks. Whether his eyes are open or closed, at home or with friends, he still sees rockets, burning cars and lifeless bodies.
"I saw atrocities. The most terrible things in the world," Kenig told reporters. The daily flashbacks forced him to seek professional help; he describes his mental state as bearing "a deep scar." Outwardly composed, with a sharp-featured face and a salt-and-pepper beard, Kenig conceals wounds he can’t easily show.
Responding to the Nova Festival
For roughly three decades Kenig has volunteered with Zaka, the Orthodox Jewish group known for quickly arriving at scenes of violent death to recover remains in accordance with Jewish burial laws. After receiving an alert in the early hours of October 7, 2023, he drove toward the Gaza border and found himself near the Nova music festival—one of the locations hit in the attack.
"God and I found ourselves facing a row of burnt-out cars, the bodies of the people shot dead on the asphalt," he recalled. He described the scene as "another world, a world that has been frozen in time." More than 370 people were killed at the Nova festival; the attack killed 1,221 people across Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Months of Recovery Work
Kenig threw himself into the work: helping survivors first, then methodically searching for and collecting human remains. He describes the difficulty of identifying victims—sometimes finding only a few hundred grams of ash, a ring, or a charred fragment of a phone from a vehicle that may have contained multiple victims. He continued recovery operations through February 2024 and says "for me, October 7 lasted four months."
Israel's subsequent military offensive has devastated much of Gaza. The Gaza health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures the UN regards as reliable, reports more than 74,200 deaths and widespread destruction.
Aftermath And Witness
Kenig’s life has been altered. A professional chef who specialised in smoked meats and catered private events, he has been unable to return to cooking after seeing so many burnt bodies. Social situations can trigger memories so intense he has to leave suddenly. Yet he refuses to adopt self-pity. "I am alive. Thank you, God. I live and I want to live," he said, adding that he will continue living despite those who wish to harm them.
He keeps hundreds of photos and videos from that day on his phone as documentation. "It's important for me to bear witness," he said. "For the next generation. So that they make sure this never happens again."
"I wouldn't wish on anyone to see bodies burning in cars and to try to save them. It's inhumane."
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