Danielle, the daughter of Israeli venture company Mellanox founder Eyal Waldman (left), was killed at the music festival site in a surprise attack by Hamas on October 7. /Waldman Facebook
A wealthy Israeli IT company who lost his youngest daughter to the Palestinian armed faction Hamas expressed his opinion that although his belief that Palestine should become an independent state has not changed, Hamas should be eliminated.
Eyal Waldman, founder of Israeli semiconductor company Mellanox, said this in an interview with the BBC at his office in Tel Aviv on the 12th (local time). Waldman is the person who sold Mellanox to Nvidia in 2019 for $6.8 billion (9 trillion won).
Waldman’s daughter, Danielle (24), was killed by Hamas on October 7 while she went to the Nova Music Festival in the Negev Desert with her boyfriend, Noam Shai, whom she had promised to marry.
A short video recorded on a cell phone shows Daniel, Shai, and others running away in a car. The man sitting next to Daniel reassured him, saying, “We’ll be okay,” but then asked, “Is it on the left?” The video ended with a voice urgently asking for direction, saying, “Is it on the right?”
Minutes later, Hamas militants opened fire on the car. Shai, who was behind the wheel, Daniel and his friends in the back seat lost their lives, and the front seat passenger was taken hostage.
Waldman recalled his daughter with a voice full of love and sadness. Waldman reportedly immediately returned from a business trip to Indonesia when she heard that her daughter was missing. Israeli airspace was closed, but fortunately we received permission to land.
Waldman tracked his daughter with an Apple Watch. The place she went to find her daughter was the battlefield. He explained the situation at the time, saying, “We almost had a fight with seven people,” and “They killed three soldiers, and we put three officers in a jeep and went south.”
Waldman found the car riddled with bullets, but there was no sign of her daughter. “There was a lot of blood in the car,” he said. “I was hoping that her daughter wasn’t in the car, that she had escaped even though she was hurt, or that she had been taken hostage.”
However, her daughter’s body was found two days later. “Daniel has never done anything bad to anyone,” Waldman said. “They (Hamas) killed my daughter for no reason.”
Nevertheless, Waldman still maintains that Palestine should have a state.
He said, “I hope that after changing the leaders of both sides, we will achieve peace within 2 to 4 years and build two countries for both peoples so that we can live together.”
However, Waldman emphasized, “Before that, everyone involved in the October 7th incident must be eliminated.” He said, “I know exactly who came, who raped, and who murdered. “I have the video and I know the cell phone number,” he said, adding, “I think we can eliminate Hamas.”
Waldman has been engaged in various activities, including creating jobs and making donations in the Gaza Strip.
When asked if he regretted his activities for the Gaza Strip, he said, “No. “I think we should do our best to make it a better place to live,” he said. He said, “We need to stop killing each other and find a way to live together. “I have been trying for two and a half years to create peace,” he said.
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2023-12-13 00:42:51
