When Romi Gonen was released via a hostage situation last weekend, it “completed the mission” of an amateur driver called the Angel of Nova.
Ben Shimoni, 31, used his skills to save friends when Hamas terrorists stormed the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023.
But as he escaped the carnage, the professional chef did something truly remarkable: he turned his car around and drove back into the carnage.
He ignored the pleas of his distraught British-Israeli soulmate Jessica Elter – who was on the phone from home the entire time – and saved nine people on two trips.
Ben then vowed to make one last ride to save his girlfriend Gaya Halifa, 24, who was trapped under a hedge with her best friend Romi, also 24.
Tragically, however, after managing to maneuver past terrorists to find the girls, they were almost out of harm's way when Hamas ambushed the vehicle.
Jessica, 29, who has British citizenship through her Liverpudlian father, listened helplessly as she heard the love of her life shot dead along with Gaya.
Romi lay wounded in the back – having been shot in the hand while checking Gaya's pulse – next to another wounded man, Ofir Tzarfati, 27.
Jessica Elter, the girlfriend of Ben Shimoni, who died during the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, said the release of hostage Romi Gonen has brought her closure
Ben Shimoni had tried to save Romi before he was brutally murdered by Hamas. Romi was then kidnapped by the terrorist group
Meirav Leshem Gonen, the mother of released hostage Romi Gonen, speaks during a press conference at the Sheba Tel HaShomer Medical Center in Ramat Gan on January 20, 2025. She thanked Ben for saving her daughter.
The two living passengers were abducted to Gaza, and when Ofir's body was recovered weeks later, it was feared that Ben's last mission had been in vain.
But incredibly, after 15 months in captivity, Romi was returned last week along with Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and British hostage Emily Damari, 24.
Jessica, who is still deeply traumatized by the loss of the man she married, says her release finally allows her to move forward in life.
“Romi is my closure,” she tells the Daily Mail from Tel Aviv. “Ben tried to save her, it was his mission.
“If he were here, he'd say my mission isn't complete until Romi gets here. Now it's like this: she's home.
'It's a moment I've been waiting for so long. This could have been a sad story with a sad ending, but it now has a happy ending. I had maybe the first real smile since October 7th.'
The hedgerow where Romi and Gaya were hiding was set on fire by the terrorists and there is little doubt that they both would have died had they stayed.
Indeed, Romi's mother, Meirav Gonen, 54 – who was on the phone with Romi when she was kidnapped to Gaza – credited Ben for saving her daughter this week.
Released Israeli hostage Romi Gonen is hugged by her mother, Meirav, after being held in Gaza since the deadly Hamas attack on October 7, 2023
Emily Damari with her mother in Shefayim, Israel, after the release of hostages on Sunday
Family members welcome Israeli hostage Doron Steinbracher at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, on January 19
“The courage, camaraderie and survival instincts displayed in that vehicle made it possible for Romi to survive and one day tell the story of them all,” she said.
“May the memory of the three murdered victims be a blessing.”
For Jessica, from Jerusalem, Romi's return also means she will discover what happened during her partner's last moments.
“She's the only one who knows what he said, his last words,” she said. 'Did he suffer? She's the only one who can close that for me.'
All she heard that day was Ben yelling “terrorists” while Gaya and Romi yelled at him, “Drive, drive, drive!”
“I heard guns – and then it went quiet,” she says. “Today I know that silence meant death.”
Jessica was so desperate for answers that the day before the October 7 anniversary, she found Ben's burnt-out Cupra Formentor and sat in it to be close to him.
“It was one of the hardest things I've ever done,” she said as she sat in the charred, bullet-ridden chassis. 'I saw him being murdered. I saw his head fall. I saw the shooting.
'I dream about it almost every day, dream that I'm in the car and I can't save him. It was difficult, but important to understand.
'This was our car. We rode in it every day, smiling and dancing. When we go back to this place… there is a dissonance between the cries of happiness we had together and the cries of blood, sorrow and pain from the day he was killed.”
It was part of a long journey to make peace with her grief, including a powerful fashion show for Nova survivors that was covered in the Daily Mail in December 2023.
Jessica wore the wedding dress she had dreamed of wearing with Ben – with a gunshot wound over her heart to symbolize his death.
“People don't understand what it means to lose the person you love most in such a traumatic way,” she said.
“One day they suddenly disappeared – and you know they suffered just because they were Jewish. Just because they are themselves.'
But now that Romi is back, she has given herself permission to try to move on.
She first heard the news that the waitress who saved Ben was on the list on her birthday. 'I was crying, my birthday has become a sad day for me – but then I heard this wonderful news.
“I thought, OK, this is Ben's birthday present to me. Ben really wants to give me this closure.'
On the day itself, she put her phone on flight mode and stayed home and watched the rescue on TV. “I was screaming, crying, smiling – all emotions,” she said.
'Then I saw her face – she was there. I just couldn't believe it. It was a moment I've been waiting for for so long.'
Although she still feels Ben's presence everywhere, she believes he has given her permission to start “a new chapter” now that Romi is home.
“He always has my back,” she said. “Even now as we're talking, I feel like he's sitting here smoking a cigarette. But he wants me to be happy – I know that.
'I know I will never be the same Jessica again. I really miss her, because the Jessica that was here all last year – I don't know who that is.
“But today I understand that there is a new Jessica coming, and I have to embrace her, accept her and smile at her.”
