Who was Oriya Ricardo? NYC woman whose daughter was killed at Israel music festival compares Palestine militant group to the Nazis
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: A New York City woman, whose daughter was among several people killed by Hamas at an Israeli music festival, has compared the Palestine militant group to the Nazis.
The devastated woman also urged global powers to band together against them, saying the “world needs to fight them.”
Hannie Ricardo, whose daughter Oriya Ricardo was gunned down at the Tribe of Nova event early Saturday, October 7, lashed out at the Palestinian group responsible for the carnage in an interview on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut.”
What did Hannie Ricardo say?
“They have not a bit of humanity in them. These kids went to dance … and now they are gone. Among them my youngest daughter,” she said, adding “I want the world to know that every dollar you give to the Hamas goes for terror — it doesn’t go to the people that live in Gaza.”
She added, “The only thing I can compare these monsters, these inhuman beings, are the Nazis during the Holocaust. The same kind of people and the world needs to know and the world needs to fight them,” she wrote.
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Hannie Ricardo didn't know that her daughter was in Israel
Ricardo, who lives in the Big Apple, did not know about her daughter's whereabouts and that she had gone to the festival in the Negev Desert.
The mother only found out when she was called in the middle of the night and told Oriya was missing.
“From that moment, I was trying to get any kind of information from my friends in Israel and at the same time to find a flight,” she said, adding that she arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday, October 9.
“I was still hoping because she was on the missing list,” Ricardo continued.
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What did the Oriya Ricardo's sister say?
According to Sydney Morning Herald, Oriya’s older sister Yahali previously said that she got alarming messages from her sister on Saturday morning, October 7.
“It’s a ritual for my sister and I that we speak every morning and I hadn’t heard from her,” Yahali told the outlet, adding “I messaged, ‘Where are you?’"
“She replied, ‘They’re shooting at us. My friend died in my arms.’ She just kept saying that her friend died in her arms,” said her sister who was in Tel Aviv at the time and had woken to the sounds of sirens.
She said that she received a shocking image of Oriya’s bloodied friend a short time later and a message that read, “I love you,” according to the Morning Herald.
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Hannie breathed heavily as she was asked what her daughter was like in an interview with MSNBC.
“It’s pretty hard to speak in the past tense about her. She was, as her name is, light — she brought light everywhere she came. A very happy girl, loved to party, was always the center of everything,” Ricardo said.
“She was the power of my life,” the anguished mother added about Oriya, the youngest of her three daughters. However, later she got the horrifying news that her daughter was among the 260 young people massacred at the overnight rave.
Fannie Ricardo said Israel never starts conflicts
She said she understands that Israel has bombed Gaza, but noted that the Jewish state never starts the conflict, saying it “always responds.”
“I feel for these Palestinians, these people, but they are hostages,” she said, adding “They are hostages in the hands of the Hamas and Iran. These terrorists have no other focus in life rather than kill as many as possible."
“When they are done with the Jews, they will come after the Americans,” Ricardo said, continuing “They did it already on 9/11. This massacre that happened is even worse than 9/11. This is Israel’s 9/11."
“This wonderful, this beautiful, cheerful, amazing girl is dead now and I’m going to bury her day after tomorrow and my heart is broken to pieces,” she added.
“But I will go everywhere to speak about her, for her and against this terrorism that goes on in Gaza Strip,” Ricardo added.