A Bay Area-born woman was brutally murdered in Israel while her family says she was trying to escape a music festival under attack by Hamas terrorists.
Danielle Waldman, 24, was killed along with her boyfriend of six years, her father Eyal Waldman said.
Eyal is the founder of a Silicon Valley tech company called Mellanox. He now lives in Israel.
“Danielle was born in Palo Alto, California,” he said. “It’s a heartbreaking devastation, this is not a sorrow … This is something you understand will be with you for the rest of your life.”
It was just days ago, he sought the help of an Israeli army general to take him inside a danger zone, determined to find his daughter.
Eyal found the couple’s bullet-riddled car near the location where Danielle’s phone pinged after an accident.
“They went south not north because I think the north side was blocked, and then we seen three shells or trails of Kalashnikov shells in the back of the car. They had been shot from the back by probably three inhumane people,” said Eyal. “It’s something that for people who have never been in that situation may not understand … my small daughter was there I could not stay at home knowing that my small daughter is under attack.”
Their bodies were gone, but days later, tragic confirmation.
“It had two aspects, the first was a disaster,” said Eyal. “Our lives, everything about our lives, just changed and will change … At the same time it was a relief because I know I can stop looking for my daughter and being afraid that she’s hostage by those barbaric, inhumane creatures.”
When asked why he wanted to share his daughter’s story, he said, “We must make sure the message is clear this will never happen again. We must come even with the people that have done this we cannot leave this unresolved.”
“We want to live in peace with our neighbors. We want to stop killing each other. We want to stop making this grief, sorrow, loss from both sides, the Palestinian side and the Israeli side.”
For now, the couple who met in the Israeli army, and had just begun talking about marriage, have been buried next to each other.
And that is how Eyal chooses to remember the free spirited daughter of his.
“Danielle loved to dance,” he said. “She danced in every opportunity that she could and Noam joined her … Danielle was the light of the family, Danielle was smiling and was loved by everybody. Danielle loved everything.”
A woman with a zest for life, and all the living beings in it.
Source: NBC Bay Area
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