Lieutenant Colonel Guy Madar, a career army officer was celebrating the holiday of Simchat Torah in Kiryat Gat with his grandparents, about a half-hour drive from Re’im where the Supernova music festival was being held. When Madar heard about the Hamas attack on the festival, he immediately drove to the scene of the attack, armed only with his personal handgun.  At Rei’m, Madar encountered a badly wounded Golani soldier who he loaded into his car. As he did so, a Palestinian terrorist opened fire. Madar was able to maneuver his car and eliminate the terrorist. Taking the wounded soldier’s rifle, Madar succeded in killing five more terrorists who were on motorcycles.

Madar brought the wounded soldier to a field hospital and returned to the battlefield. Madar joined a policeman who was also seeking to engage the terrorists. As they drove, they were attacked by terrorists. Both men were wounded in the legs and the car careened off the road, crashing. The two men were separated and Madar climbed into a ditch, putting a tourniquet on his own leg. He continued fighting terrorists from the ditch. 

IDF forces finally arrived and found Madar surrounded by dead terrorists. From a distance, the soldiers thought Madar was a terrorist as he was wearing civilian clothes and was armed. Weak from loss of blood, Madar tried to yell to them that he was Israeli but they either did not hear or were unconvinced.

Just as the soldiers were about to open fire on Madar, one of the soldiers yelled, “Don’t shoot , he is wearing tzitzit!”.

Guy was taken to Beilinson Hospital where he was treated.