The father of a missing Israeli woman heard gunshots erupt while on the phone with his terrified daughter, before the line went dead, the woman’s mom told The Post.
“She said, ‘They’re shooting. They’re shooting on us! They’re getting closer. Take care of the dog,’ and then the phone got cut off,” Orin Gatz said in a phone interview from Israel.
Her daughter, Eden Zecharya, 28, has not been seen since leaving the Tribe of Nova music festival in the Negev Desert with her boyfriend and friend.
“I can’t believe that I am praying that she is kidnapped by the worst terror organization in the world and not killed,” the 48-year-old anguished mom said in Hebrew, speaking through a translator.
Zecharya, a media studies student, left the festival shortly before Hamas fighters stormed the rave Saturday, killing at least 260 attendees and kidnapping dozens.
“She left the party because she wanted to go home,” Gatz said.
The father of missing Israeli woman Eden Zecharya, 28, heard gunshots while on the phone with her before the connection was lost during the Hamas attack on a music festival in Israel. Courtesy of family
Zecharya and her boyfriend Ofek Kimhi have been missing since the attack. Courtesy of family
Debris was left on the ground at the Supernova music festival where 260 people were killed by Hamas. ATEF SAFADI/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockSeveral minutes later, her daughter called from a car, telling her she was heading home, as sirens blared in the area.
“She said, ‘Yes, everything is OK. I’m on my way home and I’m coming back home, I’m fine. Wait one second, Daddy is on the other line,'” Gatz recalled.
Israel-Hamas war: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.
2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early-morning ambush Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli towns.
Terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israelis, wounded more than 4,200, and took at least 200 hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce, “We are at war,” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
The Gaza Health Ministry — which is controlled by Hamas — reported at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured since the war began.
But she didn’t make it far.
Hamas terrorists opened fire on the car, wounding her boyfriend, Ofek Kimhi, and friend.
“He heard the boyfriend screaming in the background,” the distraught mom said, referring to Zecharya’s father.
The friend survived the bloodbath, but Zecharya and Kimhi have not been heard from or seen since the surprise attack.
Orin Gatz is praying that his daughter was only kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. Courtesy of family
People leave flowers for the victims of the attack on the festival. REUTERS/Violeta Santos MouraZecharya said her daughter “never had any hate in her” and was “all about peace and love.”
She remains hopeful that Zecharya — who loved animals and traveling to music festivals — will soon be reunited with the family.
“They killed us,” Gatz said. “But they can’t kill our hope.”
