A suicide note that was reported to have been written by an October 7 Nova music festival survivor and was widely distributed on social media has been found to be fake, according to the inquiries of Israeli and international journalists.

After a number of high-profile figures expressed sympathy on social media for the writer of the anonymous letter, allegedly shared by a family member on a Facebook page titled “Stories of Nova,” further probes into the identity of the writer and his or her family to confirm the story’s veracity yielded a substantial lack of evidence.

Israeli media outlet Channel 13 reported that the letter was fabricated during a programme on Wednesday night, about which Channel 13 reporter Adam Shafir wrote on X: “A story that ran in recent days about a Nova survivor who saw horrors and committed suicide, did not leave a single dry eye. After trying to reach the family, to tell their story - the search turned into an investigation.”

Shafir said the investigation revealed the letter to be “a complete fake,” adding that “it is not clear what brings people to invent like this - but to cheapen the real plight of survivors, and to play with the souls of others - is simply disgusting.”

Delilah Schwartz, who volunteers with the Israeli mental health organisation Safe Heart, dedicated to providing professional support for survivors of the Nova music festival, confirmed that the letter was fake after corresponding directly with the administrator of the Facebook group where it was initially posted.

Schwartz said she reached out to the administrator of the Facebook group to get in touch with the poster, guaranteeing to keep the family anonymous as the poster claimed to be sitting shiva and requested privacy. The administrator said that the poster, claiming to be the sister of the Nova survivor who wrote the suicide letter, refused to give her brother’s name. She then told the administrator that it wasn’t her who posted the letter but her friend, at which point “something was starting to smell fishy.”

The segment broadcasted on Channel 13 relayed the same information, also checking with police and social services to verify whether a suicide had been reported, but came up empty-handed.

The suicide letter, purportedly written from the perspective of a Nova survivor who witnessed the rape and murder of a fellow festivalgoer on October 7, expressed the writer’s intense guilt for his inability to save the victim of the assault.

Addressing an anonymous woman directly, the letter said: “I have reached rock bottom, I can’t live anymore. Your look follows me every single day – in the shower, in my sleep, in my room... I ask for your forgiveness. I am coming to you, to the next great world, I promise to save you there and protect you.”

Schwartz, who works directly with Nova survivors at Safe Heart, said she was “horrified” to discover the letter had been fake:

“Most survivors are already dealing with these very intense feelings of guilt. To have this reflected in a very gut-wrenching fabricated suicide note, it’s very dangerous and callous,” she said.

“It undercuts the very real trauma that these survivors are going through and it overpowers the real stories and truth, which are just as horrifying."

The letter was initially amplified online by prominent Israeli influencers, many of whom later apologised when the fake was revealed

On Thursday, Mazzig took to X to “take responsibility,” writing that while he had been unable to verify the letter writer’s identity, he shared the message because it "was in line with numerous other testimonies and evidence related to the tragic events of the Nova massacre. I have also heard similar accounts directly from survivors, which reinforced the credibility of the story.”

He has since deleted his initial post about the letter.

German ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert also expressed regret for "having believed - like so many others - that that suicide letter was real.”

He added: “It turns out it was a fake. I find this an appalling act given that so many real lives were taken at the Nova festival, so many crimes committed, so many souls destroyed.”

In a message translated from Hebrew, the Nova Tribe Community Association said: “Given the information we have and after inquiries to the government ministries and various authorities - we have not found any indication of the truth of the post.

“We would like to emphasise that many of the survivors of the Nova are in a complex mental state and therefore, we appeal to the public and ask: if you have encountered a fear of suicide, contact our association, the Moshe Association or the welfare authorities,” they said.