The heartbroken mom of a 20-year-old former New Jersey man killed in the sneak attack on Israel by Hamas militants issued a moving plea for peace this week, saying, “In my name, I want no vengeance.”
Michal Halev, the mother of Laor Abramov, an aspiring DJ who was kidnapped and killed by terrorists who attacked a rave near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, can be seen breaking down in tears during the nearly 3-minute video.
“I am begging the world, stop all the wars, stop killing people, stop killing babies,” Halev said in the clip. “War is not the answer. War is not how you fix things.
“This country, Israel, is going through horror, and I know my other country, America, is going through horror,” she said. “And I know the mothers in Gaza are going through horror, and I know that people in Ukraine and in all the world are going through their own horrors.
“The whole world unite to heal those children that they won’t grow up to be haters, that they grow up to be lovers, gentle lovers like my gentle giant,” she said. “And that they will have a life. They will grow up and fulfill their dreams and marry the girl they love.”
Halev then breaks down in tears, unable to continue.
Abramov, a lanky 6-foot-4 figure, was nicknamed the “Gentle Giant” by his friends and family.
The video was released Tuesday by HeadStart, an Israeli crowdfunding group.
The surprise dawn attack by Hamas left more than 1,400 Israelis dead, most of them civilians, including at a kibbutz near the Gaza border and at a rave attended by hundreds, including Abramov.
Israel has since launched a retaliatory strike against Gaza that has forced more than a million to flee.
Abramov lived in Mercer County, New Jersey, until last year, when he traveled to Israel to serve in the military — but decided to follow his dream to become a DJ like his father, David Abramov.
According to his family, he was last seen in an online photo inside a bomb shelter with about a half dozen other men, about an hour after the Hamas attack and not long after making his last call to relatives.
‘I am going into a missile shelter, a bomb shelter, and don’t worry,’” he told his family. “I’m not going to be able to speak because it’s very noisy.”
A survivor of the attack on the shelter later told the family that she saw the radical militants grab Abramov and throw him into a pickup truck, which sped away.
His family revealed last week that he had been confirmed dead.
“I’ve been broken now for a few days and I will remain broken for the rest of my life,” Halev said.
“But I managed to catch one breath and I want to use it to talk to the world because I hear voices of people wanting vengeance and of people wanting to go kill the monsters,” she said.
“And I want to say that in my name, I want no vengeance.”