Samaria: mother of 6 murdered in terrorist attack
Esther Horgan, a mother of six from Tal Menashe, was murdered Sunday night in a terrorist attack in the Reihan Forest where she went for a run.
Esther Horgan Photo: Courtesy
Horgan, 52, a resident of Tal Menashe in northern Samaria, was an artist and a marriage counsellor.
She was the mother of two daughters and four sons. The youngest of them is 13 years old and celebrated his bar mitzvah only three months ago.
Horgan set out around 13:00 Sunday for a run in the Reihan Forest near her community.
In the evening, after failing to contact her, her husband Benjamin called the security forces. The search teams, including the Samaria Rescue Unit, volunteers from nearby communities, army and police search teams sent pout to search for her. Around 1 a.m., she was found by one of the search units, lifeless, with her skull smashed.
The head of the Shomron Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, arrived at the scene and, together with the rabbi of the community, brought the bitter news to the family.
Dagan stated that “a dear woman so full of kindness, who helped of people, goes out at noon in the centre of the state of Israel, for a sporting activity a minute from her home, and is murdered by evildoers so cruelly.”
“And I ask what barbarians, like in the Middle Ages, what cruelty to hack the face of a 52-year-old woman cold-bloodedly with a rock. What evil are we facing?” he demanded.
“I want to say clearly to these barbarians from the Palestinian Authority in front of the whole world: You will never break us and the settlement in Samaria will flourish and grow and build together with the whole of the State of Israel because you in the barbaric Palestinian Authority chose death and we chose life. You act like barbarians in the Middle Ages and we are in 2020 and the people of Israel will win,” he declared.
Reihan Forest is a nature reserve near the communities of Reihan and Tal Menashe.
Horgan is the third Israeli to be murdered in 2020.
Rabbi Shai Ohayon, a father of four, was stabbed to death by a terrorist in August.
IDF soldier Amit Ben Yigal was killed in action in May.
President Reuven Rivlin commented: “This is a hard, heart-breaking morning with news of the cruel murder of Esther Horgan, who left her house yesterday añd did not return. A full life of wonderful works, of home and family, of creativity and care have been cut short by a beast in human guise. I have full faith that our security forces will get to the despicable murders and that justice will be done. I embrace Esther’s family, her children and their father. We are with you in this time of such deep grief.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added: “The late Esther Horgan was brutally murdered when she went out for a run near her home. The security forces will apprehend the murderer as quickly as possible and we will settle accounts with him. I would like to send deep condolences to the family.”
