Car Memorial at Tkuma

On a field near Moshav Tkuma, west of the Re’im junction, stands the Car Memorial at Tkuma — a wall of burned and bullet-riddled vehicles from October 7, 2023. Approximately 1,000 cars, trucks, ambulances, and motorcycles are piled here, the vehicles of people who tried to flee the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival and the surrounding communities along Route 232. The site has become one of the most visited memorials in the Gaza Envelope.

What Happened

On the morning of October 7, thousands of Hamas militants breached the Gaza border fence and attacked Israeli communities and the Nova music festival. Festival-goers and residents fled in their cars along Route 232, the road that runs parallel to the Gaza border. Militants shot at engines to disable the vehicles, then shot the occupants. Many cars were deliberately set on fire. The road became a killing field stretching for kilometers. Survivors later described the chaos of trying to drive through a road blocked by disabled vehicles while under fire, with some abandoning their cars and fleeing on foot into the open fields. The vehicles collected at Tkuma represent only a portion of the destruction along Route 232 and the surrounding roads that morning. Some drivers tried to turn around and head north, but found that road blocked as well. Others drove into fields and ditches, hoping to escape on foot through the agricultural land that surrounds the road. The attack along Route 232 continued for hours before military forces were able to secure the road and begin evacuations.

The Memorial Site at Tkuma

The vehicles were initially moved to the Tkuma lot to clear the roads and to allow ZAKA volunteers to search for human remains. For more than three weeks after the attack, the vehicles were vacuumed from sunrise to sunset to collect the ashes of victims who had been burned beyond recognition, so that those remains could be buried according to Jewish tradition. The site was never planned as a memorial, it became one. Visitors walk among the vehicles in silence, reading license plates, seeing bullet holes, smelling the residue of fire. Personal items were found inside the cars for weeks afterward. Some vehicles still have stickers, air fresheners, or child car seats, small details of ordinary life frozen at the moment of catastrophe. The sheer scale of the lot, row after row of destroyed vehicles, conveys the magnitude of the attack in a way that numbers alone cannot. Israeli flags and memorial candles left by visitors line the edges of the lot, and photographs of the victims are sometimes placed on the vehicles by returning families.

Visit with Hoshen Tours

The Car Memorial at Tkuma is one of the most emotionally devastating sites in Israel. No guided explanation is needed here; the vehicles speak for themselves. Hoshen Tours visits as part of a broader journey through the Gaza Envelope, including the Nova Festival Memorial and the resilient communities of the region. Visitors are encouraged to take their time at the site and process the experience at their own pace. Hoshen Tours often combines this site with Yad Mordechai, Steel Division Memorial, and Black Arrow Memorial for a memorable day exploring the region.