Mum sends message to protesters after losing daughter in brutal Hamas massacre
Israeli soldiers capture Palestinian militant at music festival massacre
The mother of an Israeli woman killed by Hamas militants earlier this month is urging people to “wake up” about the terrorists’ support amid ongoing protests across the country.
Hannie Ricardo, 58, lost her daughter, Oriya, during Hamas’ attack at the Supernova music festival in the Negev desert in Israel on October 7.
Ricardo, a former lecturer at New York’s Yeshiva University, said she was supposed to move into a new apartment in New York City last Sunday, when her daughter was supposed to visit.
Ricardo told Fox News: “But instead of that, I buried my kid on Sunday.”
Now, she is telling Americans to be careful: “I turned New York into my home. I made a lot of Americans my friends. Now, I worry for them.”
The mother immediately halted her studies after receiving word that Oriya, 26, was missing in the wake of Hamas’ brutal attack.
She said: “The moment I heard there was an attack, I took my phone and saw her message.”
Oriya’s final text to her mother read: “Mom, I love you so much.”
Ricardo said: “I tried to call back, but, of course, it was too late. She never answered my calls. I thought she was hiding, and she put [her phone] on silent mode.”
Oriya was an unsuspecting attendee at the music festival two weeks ago.
Haunting videos show festival-goers dancing before recognizing the sound of gunfire as they were under siege by Hamas militants shooting from trucks and vans.
At least 260 civilians were killed, making the event among the worst civilian mass casualty incidents in Israeli history.
Ricardo said: “The human vocabulary doesn’t have a word yet to describe this kind of massacre.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on October 8 that Israel was at war with Hamas.
On the same day, Ricardo flew to Israel, where she reported Oriya missing and provided authorities with a sample of her DNA.
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Days before her daughter’s body was found, Ricardo told a news outlet she was “waiting for [Oriya] to come back so [she] could hug her.”
Ricardo said to Fox News: “I spoke about her courage. She was a courageous girl, an amazing girl. I said, ‘She’s probably hiding,’ and I expected her to come out when things [were] quiet.”
Oriya’s boyfriend eventually found her body on October 10.
Ricardo said: “He was about to find my daughter’s body, hiding and pretty much dead. She was murdered. She was shot in the head.”
Her mother said Oriya was “the most loyal friend you could ask for” and a “cheerful girl with a charming smile” who could “conquer anything – especially the hearts of people.”
Ricardo added: “It’s not only her beauty outside, she was a beautiful person inside and out. Kind and loving and considerate and the best listener ever.”
She continued: “She was my heart – now it’s dead. I don’t know how to live without a heart. I know that I speak out of grief, and losing her is beyond words. I don’t have words to describe this.”
Ricardo said that she now worries about Americans who “don’t hesitate to take a side without thinking”.
She said: “They don’t know what Hamas is like…They equal ISIS and al Qaeda and those who caused American 9/11. They might be even worse than that.
“[In America], you have your freedom of speech. But the interpretation of freedom of speech needs to be discussed because when freedom of speech becomes freedom of hate, it becomes a whole different thing.”
Ricardo has a message for the people opposing Israel: “Wake up and start doubting.”
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