EXCLUSIVE ‘Maya sent me a recording of her laugh because I loved it so much… I’ll never hear it again’: British mother describes the horror of losing her daughter during Nova festival terror attack where she was shot as she tried to flee

• Maya Puder, 25, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Nova festival 
• She hid in a tiny shack and was killed when trying to run for her life
• Her parents revealed Hamas lit tyres to smoke her out of her shelter 

The night before aspiring actress Maya Puder was murdered at the Nova Festival by Hamas terrorists was as exciting, lively and full of love as the rest of her life. 

Her mother, 54-year-old interior decorator Ayala, and father, 57-year-old software engineer Avi, dropped off some fresh food that the 25-year-old’s sister had cooked for her.

After seeing her parents, she was picked up to go to her boyfriend’s sister’s wedding, partying all day before being picked up in the small hours in the morning and driving through the night to the Nova Festival near Kibbutz Re’im.

As a film student at the Film and Television School at Tel Aviv University, she was keen on becoming an actor and director, having made three short movies herself and starring in countless others by her friends and classmates.

As an IDF volunteer, she understood the importance of duty, and she was kind, Ayala, a British citizen whose family hail from Manchester, said:

‘She knew I loved her laugh. So a few months ago, she sent me a recording of her laugh. She said “Mum, here, you can have it on your phone so every time you miss me, you can listen to me laughing”.’

Maya Puder (pictured) was just 25 when she was murdered by Hamas

She was an aspiring actress and director, studying at Tel Aviv University 

Puder was also a volunteer with the IDF

Maya during one of her acting lessons 

Maya was close with her family, made up of herself, her parents, and her two sisters, 24-year-old Eliya and 18-year-old Halleli, and they visited each other every week, whether in Tel Aviv or in their home in Zikhron Ya’akov, about 40 miles away.

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But Maya was especially close with Eliya, both of whom were studying at Tel Aviv University.

‘[They] grew up as twins, and Eliya doesn’t know life without Maya. She does not remember a day without her.’

The family came back from their first long holiday as a family in 13 years just a week-and-a-half before Maya was killed.

It was there, on a cruise ship touring Greece, that Maya told them about her plans to settle down with her boyfriend.

‘Maya had told us on our trip to Greece that she had decided her boyfriend was going to be her husband,’ Ayala said.

‘She had decided they were going to have two kids, and they were going to have their own home.

‘They were talking about the future. Dreaming about their future together.’

Maya was close with her family, made up of herself, her parents, and her two sisters, 24-year-old Eliya and 18-year-old Halleli

More than 2,000 people attended Maya’s funeral in her hometown 

She and her family lived in in Zikhron Ya’akov, about 40 miles away from Tel Aviv

None of that mattered to the gunmen who mowed her down on Black Saturday.

After hearing missiles soar overhead, Maya called her parents, told them that she loved them, and that she, along with around 40 other festival attendees, had found a two-by-five-metre shelter that they all hid in.

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Despite the calamity of the situation, Avi and Ayala said they weren’t initially worried about the attack, as Israel has faced threats from Hamas rockets countless times.

‘In the beginning, I wasn’t afraid because I knew from past experiences with Maya that they [would] go into that shelter and they’re fine,’ Ayala said.

But, Avi said, it was only when he saw confusing news reports referring to terrorists on paragliders that his heart sank.

He immediately contacted his daughter: ‘I just wrote to Maya, “Hey, be careful. Looks like there is a risk that terrorists are crossing the border. You need to be safe.”’

‘I was under the impression that she could protect herself by staying inside [the shelter].’

Maya heard faraway gunshots, which she took to mean the IDF would soon arrive to save them.

After hearing missiles soar overhead, Maya called her parents, told them that she loved them, and that she, along with around 40 other festival attendees, had found a two-by-five-metre shelter that they all hid in

Maya’s friend, who survived the Black Saturday attack, told her parents that the actress was shot to death around 20 metres from the door of the shelter

Government officials came to their home in Zikhron Ya’akov and told the family that DNA testing had confirmed that Maya was killed at the Nova festival

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But her salvation never came. Instead, cramped, trapped and afraid, she and the 40 other festivalgoers in the small shelter watched in horror as Hamas terrorists began lighting tyres on fire and rolling them to the windows in an effort to smoke them out.

They also threw grenades in the building, in case the smoke wasn’t enough to draw them out.

One by one, as they could bear the acrid stench of burning rubber no longer, they scrambled out of the shack, only to be mowed down by Hamas terrorists, waiting just feet away to pick civilians off with their guns as they fled for their lives.

Maya’s friend, who survived the Black Saturday attack, told her parents that the actress was shot to death around 20 metres from the door of the shelter.

But her parents didn’t know she had died for four agonising days.

‘We did not sleep, we did not eat,’ Ayala said.

‘We knew about the attack on Saturday morning. We got the announcement of her being dead on Wednesday around six o’clock in the evening.’

During Shiva, the family received hundreds of her friends, each of them devastated by her death

Held in her hometown, her funeral was attended by over 2,000 of her friends and family

‘It was surprising. We knew her, but we didn’t know the magnitude of her relationships with so many friends,’ her father said

Government officials came to their home in Zikhron Ya’akov that evening, and told the family that DNA testing had confirmed that Maya was killed at the Nova festival.

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‘When we saw them coming, we were kind of ready for the announcement. But you are never ready,’ Ayala said.

Their other daughters were with them when they learned of Maya’s murder. While Halleli stayed with them, Eliya left, unable to bear the news of the passing of her ‘twin.’

The family began preparations for Shiva, the Jewish customary seven-day mourning period that is normally only observed by the immediate members of a deceased person’s family.

But during Shiva, the family received hundreds of her friends, each of them devastated by the loss of someone who was, for almost all of them, a rock and a shoulder to cry on.

Ayala said: ‘Her friends and people who knew her described her as a magnet to people. She was a best friend to each one of them.’

‘It was surprising. We knew her, but we didn’t know the magnitude of her relationships with so many friends. How she was like a psychologist for a lot of them. We didn’t know that,’ Avi added.

It took days for Israel to conduct its first investigation of the massacre at the Nova Festival

Maya’s body was left in the sun for four days as Israeli investigators worked out who had been killed

Per Jewish customs, she was not buried in a coffin or a casket, but was wrapped in a delicate, white cloth

The funeral was an even bigger affair, and a chance to learn even more about the woman who, unbeknownst to them, had touched the lives of so many around her.

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Held in her hometown, it was attended by over 2,000, Ayala said.

She said when the cemetery’s staff asked her how many they were expecting, she told them that roughly 200 would show up.

‘I did not realise how many people Maya knew, and for how many people she meant so much in life.’

Avi said: ‘We were shocked that they said so many things that we didn’t know about her. It was one after another, all her friends were talking there for about an hour.’

‘I learned that for so many friends, she was the best friend, the one that they go to to get advice. They will miss her so much.’

But that was little comfort when they laid their daughter to rest.

‘To bury your child and to know that you’re never going to see her again. You’re never going to hear her laughter, feel her skin, feel her palms again,’ Ayala said, trailing off. 

Worse was the state of her body. It took days for Israel to conduct its first investigation of the massacre at the Nova Festival.

Last month, on November 26, was meant to be Maya’s 26th birthday. The family held a memorial on the day, which they were determined not to be a sombre affair

The Puders have had little else to do but mourn and think about what they would say to her if they had just a little more time

‘I just want to hug her twenty times a day and tell her “Wow, I’m proud of you because you’re such a special person”. But I can’t do it anymore,’ Avi said

As a result, her body was left in the sun for four days.

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Per Jewish customs, she was not buried in a coffin or a casket, but was wrapped in a delicate, white cloth.

‘She was a tiny person. She was very, very tiny. But seeing the body inside the cloth, it was almost twice as big as what she should have been. It was horrible,’ Ayala said.

‘If the four days before we were told that she was killed were the four longest days of my life, then this was the worst moment of my life,’ Avi said.

Last month, on November 26, was meant to be Maya’s 26th birthday. The family held a memorial on the day, which they were determined not to be a sombre affair.

They sent out invitations to celebrate Maya’s life with them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Puders’ family home was packed to the rafters with those who loved her the most.

‘We anticipated thirty, but fifty showed up,’ Ayala said with a faraway smile on her face.

The dozens gathered at the home did what Maya loved most. They drank, they ate and they sang.

Ayala said: ‘Every day I wish that I would meet her just one more time. Just to tell her that I love her’

As a film student at the Film and Television School at Tel Aviv University, she was keen on becoming an actor and director

One of Maya’s friends catered the event. ‘He did a whole service here with a lot of meat, a lot of wine, and a lot of karaoke,’ Ayala said.

‘We sang. We sat and we talked about her, about them, about how life is now. They’ve lost a lot of friends during [Black Saturday]. And they’re still losing friends.’

But as the flowers stopped coming, and the friends stopped visiting, the Puders had little else to do but mourn and think about what they would say to her if they had just a little more time.

‘I just want to hug her twenty times a day and tell her “Wow, I’m proud of you because you’re such a special person”. But I can’t do it anymore,’ Avi said, holding back tears.

He said it took a friend telling him that he had done right by her for her entire life, weeks after she had died, for him to make any progress with his grief. 

‘Someone told me “you gave her all the tools to grow up and to be herself”.

‘So I feel okay with that, but I still want to hug her and kiss her and just tell her that I am proud.’

Ayala, meanwhile, said: ‘Every day I wish that I would meet her just one more time. Just to tell her that I love her.

‘Maybe it’s something for us, as parents, to learn. To say it more often to our kids, to our friends and to the people that we share our life with, that we appreciate and that we love them.

‘Just let them know, so they understand how much they mean to us.’

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