Israeli tech billionaire hopes for two-state solution despite daughter's killing
Despite the brutal killing of his youngest daughter, Eyal Waldman still believes that the Palestinians should have a state
Danielle Waldman, the daughter of Israeli tech giant Eyal Waldman, founder of Mellanox Technologies, danced the last dance of her young life sometime before dawn on 7 October.
There is a brief video of the 24-year-old, revealing only a hint of the horrors to come, reports BBC.
It shows her sitting in the back seat of a car with two friends and her boyfriend, Noam Shai, in the front seat behind the wheel. Strands of her long curly hair escape from her grey hoodie.
"Want me to drive very, very fast?" he asks. "I know how to do that."
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"Correct," replies a female passenger. A bearded young man sitting beside Danielle tries to provide reassurance. "We will be alright," he says. "Everything is okay, right?" Next, from the front, an urgent demand - "left, or right?"
That's where the video ends.
According to reports, the group was targeted by Hamas and the car was riddled with bullets soon after.
Except for the front seat passenger, who was taken hostage, everyone in the car was killed, along with the other 360 Israelis who went to dance at the festival in the Negev desert near the Gaza border, says CNN.
By sundown that day, 1,200 Israelis had been killed.
Since then, Israel has gone to war in Gaza "to eradicate Hamas," and Palestinians, in turn, have suffered casualties.
Almost 18,000 people have been killed at last count - according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza - 7,300 of them children.
In Gaza now, as in Israel after 7 October, parents are burying their children. And for every parent, Palestinian or Israeli, the loss is incomparable.
BBC met Danielle's father Eyal in his art-filled office, in Tel Aviv.
"She was an amazing girl," he says in a voice laden with love. "She loved to dance. She loved animals. She loved people. She had many, many friends. She loved to snowboard, to scuba dive, to go on a motorcycle with Noam."
When he got word that Danielle was missing, he raced back from a trip to Indonesia - getting permission to land in Israel, even though the airspace was closed.
Tracking her Apple watch, he had gone looking for her. According to Eyal, the serach felt like walking into a battlefield.
"We were close to an engagement with seven terrorists, creatures, call them what you want," he says. "They had killed three or four soldiers. After that we took three officers in a jeep and went down south."
He found the bullet-riddled car, but there was no sign of Danielle.
"There was a lot of blood inside the car," he says. "I was hoping she wasn't in the car, or that she was wounded but was able to escape, or was taken hostage."
Two days later her body was found.
"Everything she touched was with a smile. She never did anything wrong to anyone," he says, choking back tears. "She just loved doing good things. And they [Hamas] just murdered her for no reason."
Despite the brutal killing of his youngest daughter, Eyal Waldman still believes that the Palestinians should have a state - and soon.
"We need to change leadership on both sides. And then I hope in two to four years we'll be able to do peace and build two states for the two people and be able to live together next to each other," he says.
But before that, he wants something else.
"Anyone that was responsible, anyone that was associated with what happened on 7 October 2023, will be eliminated. And we will take care of that," he says firmly.
"We know exactly who came, who raped, who butchered. We have videos, we have their cell phone numbers. We know who they are. We can eliminate them. And I think we can eliminate Hamas."
The former Israeli army officer knows about waging war. He served in an elite unit - the Golani Brigade.
He also knows about building bridges. In the past he opened a design centre in Gaza, donated $360,000 (£286,200) to a hospital there, and created jobs for Palestinians both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank.
Does he regret that now?
"No, I don't," he replies without hesitation. "I think we need to do everything we can to make this place the best place to live in.
"And we need to stop killing each other and find a way to live together. I have been working for two-and-half decades trying to make peace."
