An Upper East Side mom whose daughter was one of 260 people slaughtered by Hamas at a music festival begged Americans who back the terror group’s cause to reconsider.
Hannie Ricardo’s daughter Oriya was gunned down at the Tribe of Nova event, where the terrorists shot into the fleeing crowd, lobbed grenades at concertgoers and took hostages.
“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,” Ricardo told The Post. “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.”
Ricardo, 58, who is here studying at Hunter College, said, “I am not holding up. I am collapsing,” after the death of Oriya, 26, who was killed as she tried to escape the carnage of the Oct. 7 surprise attack.
“My girl tried to run away and cried, but they caught up to her after 100 meters from the car and shot her,” the mother of three said. “They called me and they let me know that my daughter is missing and I took the first flight back to Israel.”
Ricardo returned to Tel Aviv, where her two older daughters had also been staying before the attack, earlier this week.
“She was the most beautiful girl on this planet,” the grieving mom said, breaking down as she talked of her youngest child. “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.
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“It’s not going to happen so it breaks my heart, whatever is left of it. It’s broken, shredded to pieces.”
She reiterated calls for the world to stand up to Hamas, whose shocking assault by air, sea and land has so far left 1,300 dead, including 27 Americans, and seen 150 hostages taken.
Another 1,900 have been killed in the Gaza Strip as Israel has relentlessly rocketed the area, vowing to wipe Hamas from existence.
“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,” she said. “This was a Nazi organized operation. This sort of cruelty you saw doing the Holocaust. … Is this a war? It’s not a war. It’s slaughtering people for fun.