between Hamas and Israel ended last week, I was walking through a throng of memorials dedicated to the 364 people butchered by terrorists on October 7 at the Nova music festival. When Hamas began their 2023 invasion into Israel the terrorists had no idea that this joyous gathering of music and dancing was even taking place in a dusty field just three miles from the Gaza border.

But having discovered an open space packed with defenceless young revellers the militants all too easily took advantage of the situation and began slaughtering the innocent. Images of young men and women being kidnapped and killed, and bodies being paraded on the back of trucks in Gaza, are some of the most recognisable from the atrocity. They are burned into our mind's eye alongside other global events

Young people sought refuge wherever they could as the gunmen stormed the open sandy expanse where the festival was being held. Men and women, who just moments before had been dancing and enjoying life, now hid behind drinks fridges, in the DJ booth and even in the rubbish containers, but all were found and murdered.

Many tried to flee the festival in their cars, but it was a road to hell. Hamas militants were already lining the highway and shot people in cold blood inside their cars before mutilating the bodies and setting the vehicles alight.

Route 232, the road from the festival, became a graveyard and nearby bomb shelters, which had been used for residents for years as a place of safety to avoid debris from rocket attacks, now also became tombs.

Aner Shapira, aged 22, was one of those killed in one such shelter as he and more than a dozen others packed into the tiny space to hide from the gunmen. Aner managed to throw back seven grenades hurled into the shelter by terrorists, before one finally exploded and took his life. His brave selfless actions helped save the lives of some of those sheltering alongside him. Sadly, many died when the militants then machine-gunned those left inside.

The Nova Festival massacre site and memorial now attracts more than 7,000 visitors a day and when I was there the place was thronged with people, young and old, IDF soldiers and Orthodox and secular Jews, as well as visitors who appeared, like me, to have come from further afield. There was even a group of boys from a secondary school, who told me they had come to visit the memorial of one of their former classmates.

It's clear this is still a young memorial, flowers, possessions, stickers and messages are still being placed by each dedicated plot. When I was there a young woman was dutifully re-lighting candles which had gone out.

Every individual memorial has something unique marking each person's life, near the centre of the site stands someone's treasured surfboard erected proudly in the sand.

And it might sound strange, but because many of the victims were in their 20s, there is still a sense of life here I have never experienced at such a sombre place.

Across a large patch of sandy earth row upon row of poles stand, each topped with a large placard and photo, of the person who was murdered on that fateful day.

Each picture stands at around head height, and as you walk past them you find yourself staring at young men and women who were in the prime of their lives, with bright smiles and beautiful faces beaming with all the benefits of youth, yet to be assailed by the lines of worry and age.

The people looking back at me should have had their whole lives ahead of them and this made seeing them in this place all the more moving.

In the centre of the field of faces a large board shows a collage of everyone killed, not all of whom were young, some 17 security guards and police officers also died, as well as staff working at the festival, but all now adorn this memorial.

In English beneath the Hebrew, an inscription reads simply, "'Nova Festival' dance floor".

In one corner of the field of fallen I find a large placard and photo dedicated to Shani Louk, a 22-year-old German-Israeli citizen, who I recognise.

Shani's story came to global prominence after her worried relatives searched desperately for news of her fate in the terrifying hours after the attack. For a brief moment it was thought Shani may have survived and been kidnapped, but all hope was lost when sickening images emerged showing her body being paraded by militants in Gaza. Her remains were finally recovered by the IDF on May 17, 2024.

An inscription beneath Shani's photo reads: "The video of her kidnapping to Gaza has become an emotional global symbol, starkly illustrating the contrast between a love for life and the forces of darkness."

And for me, even in this place where the darkest parts of the human soul were unleashed, there is a sense that these young people will never be forgotten and that their lives, however brief, will always be celebrated, hopefully long after the cancerous ideology of Hamas has been extinguished.