Eyal Waldman speaks with the CNN
(Video: CNN)
The father of a 24-year-old American national who was murdered in the Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival held on to hope that his daughter might have been taken hostage, rather than killed, during the assault.
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Danielle Waldman, a native of Palo Alto, California, was at the music festival with her boyfriend of six years when both of them fell victim to the Hamas terror attack, as reported to CNN by her father Eyal Waldman, founder of Mellanox, an Israeli-American multinational supplier of computer networking products.
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Eyal Waldman, his daughter Danielle Waldman, and her boyfriend Noam
(Photo: Facebook)
Eyal, who had only learned of his daughter's fate just hours before speaking with CNN's Erin Burnett, spoke of the profound impact Danielle had on everyone she met. "Each and every one that met her has loved her,” Eyal said. “She’s done nothing wrong and nothing bad to anyone.”
Using the tracking features on her phone and Apple Watch, the family managed to locate the place where Eyal's youngest daughter had lost her life. He described the scene as a car surrounded and attacked by Hamas.
“I have seen exactly how she was murdered from two directions by at least three to five people that had attacked it,” he said. "From the shells that we have found, there were at least three guns that were shooting at the car."
Waldman recounted his last conversation with Danielle, during which she had shared her plans to marry her boyfriend soon. Tragically, they will now be laid to rest together.
The young couple had just moved into a new apartment only a month ago, sharing their lives with a beloved dog.
“They had only been there for a few weeks, now we will need to see what to do with all their belongings,” Waldman said.
Waldman concluded by emphasizing Israel's resilience and determination. "Israel will stay strong and be strong for the long term," he added.