""How cruel to retouch a face": Esther Horgan, mother of 6, murdered in the woods

December 21, 2020   

Esther Horgan, a resident of Tal Menashe in northern Samaria, a mother of six children, an artist and a couples counselor, was murdered in the attack in the Rihan Forest last night. Suffering from a medical problem? Feeling alone? • You can make money from the situation Horgan went for a run yesterday around 1:00 PM (Sunday) in the Rihan Forest Nature Reserve near the settlement. In the evening, after failing to contact her, her husband Benjamin called the security forces. The search teams, including the Samaria Rescue Unit, civilian volunteers from nearby communities, including the rabbis, and army and police search teams, began searching for her. At around 1 a.m., she was found by one of the search units, lifeless, with her skull crushed. The head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, arrived at the scene and, together with the rabbi of the settlement, was forced to bring the bitter news to the family. Dagan said of the shocking event: "A dear woman so full of kindness, of helping people, goes out at noon in the center of the State of Israel, for a short sports activity from her home, and is murdered by evildoers in such a cruel way. And I ask what kind of barbarians, like in the Middle Ages, what cruelty to retouch the face of a 52-year-old woman with a rock in cold blood. What kind of evil are we facing? "And I want to say clearly to these barbarians from the Palestinian Authority in front of the whole world: You will never break us. The settlement in Samaria will flourish and grow. And build together with the entire State of Israel, because you in the barbaric Palestinian Authority chose death and we chose life. You are behaving like barbarians in the Middle Ages and we are in 2020 and the people of Israel will prevail." Esther Horgan was the mother of six children, two daughters and four sons. The youngest, aged 13, celebrated his Bar Mitzvah only about 3 months ago. The Reihan Forest is a nature reserve near the settlements of Reihan and Tal Menashe. One of the most important nature reserves in northern Samaria.