A New York City mother who lost her daughter in Hamas’ terror attack last week has some words for those in the West who support the terrorist group.
“You have terrorists and a lot of people in America support them. In the name of freedom of speech, you let them talk and support these terrorists,” mother Hannie Ricardo told the New York Post in an interview late this week.
“I know you have this amendment of freedom of speech, but you also support that freedom of hate. What do you do with that? Freedom of hate — is that good? Just give me one good reason for freedom of hate,” she added.
Regarding her 26-year-old daughter Oriya’s death, she said, “I am not holding up. I am collapsing.”
Her beautiful daughter Oriya Ricardo, 26, was killed on Saturday at the Supernova music festival by Hamas group.
Her mother Hannie said, her killers are Nazis who will ‘come for America next’ pic.twitter.com/FEtmXwzDXn
— Judy ⛳️ (@judytgolf) October 11, 2023
Oriya died on the 7th at the Israeli music festival where the attack began.
“My girl tried to run away and cried, but they caught up to her after 100 meters from the car and shot her. They called me and they let me know that my daughter is missing and I took the first flight back to Israel,” according to Ricardo, who’s currently living in NYC so that she may study at Hunter College.
Once back in Israel, she went straight to Tel Aviv, where her two older daughters had reportedly been staying prior to last Saturday’s terror attack
“She was the most beautiful girl on this planet,” she said of her deceased daughter. “I’m still waiting for her to come through the door [or give] me a phone call saying, ‘Oh it was a mistake, that’s not your daughter’ and I will see her with a boyfriend, getting married. I’ll see my grandkids. I still hope, but, you know.”
“It’s not going to happen so it breaks my heart, whatever is left of it. It’s broken, shredded to pieces,” she added.
Concluding her remarks to the Post, she urged the world to stand up to Hamas.
“They are hateful people and they live in order to kill. This is not war. In wars, as stupid as they are, they have armies fighting against armies. This was a Nazi organized operation. This sort of cruelty you saw during the Holocaust. … Is this a war? It’s not a war. It’s slaughtering people for fun,” she said.
Ricardo is one of many, many, many survivors who are grieving over their lost ones.
Another one is Rotem Matias, a 16-year-old who was shot during last week’s terror attack but survived thanks to his now-deceased parents trying to shield him from bullets.
The U.S. citizens Deborah and Shlomi Matias were killed in Saturday’s Hamas attack against Israel.
Their 16-year-old son Rotem was covered by his mother’s body and survived the attack despite suffering a gunshot wound to the stomach.
He was rescued 12 hours later
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 10, 2023
“I’m able to walk now. A few days ago, I couldn’t even stand. The bullet in my stomach has been taken out via surgery, and I’m feeling much, much better,” he told CNN in an interview.
He added that he intends to keep the bullet to remember his parents.
“I wanted to just keep it as a memory to never forget them and remember that even though it was the hardest and lowest point in my life, I found … some hope that maybe I could live and share the memories, and how I saw my parents, with other people,” he said.
Also speaking with CNN, Rotem’s grandfather, Ilan Troen, praised the teen’s parents for all they’d overcome to “create a family.”
“What their parents did, Shlomi and Deborah, was very seriously, systematically, lovingly, and with great care and intelligence, create a family. Their life wasn’t always so easy, but they overcame whatever obstacles they had in creating a beautiful family,” he said.
Sadly, Troen was on the phone when his daughter was killed.
“We were on the phone with Deborah as she was killed. We were on the phone the entire day with our grandson, Rotem, as he lay first under her body, and then found a place to escape. The brunt of the shot was borne by his mother,” he said.
“The terrorists who came, they had explosives and blew up the front door to their house and then blew out the front door to their so-called safe room,” he added.
“They won’t die there, they won’t die. They will live on in memories and in stories.”
Rotem Matias– who survived Hamas’ attack when his parents sacrificed their lives to shield him from gunfire– joins with his sisters and grandfather to share their family’s story: pic.twitter.com/w6WRXh65Lo
— CNN This Morning (@CNNThisMorning) October 12, 2023
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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