Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the most recognizable faces of the heart-wrenching hostage crisis that sparked the Israel-Hamas war, has died, bringing a crushing end to a tireless and high-profile international campaign by his parents to secure his release. <\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Israeli American\u2019s ordeal had come to symbolize the pain and agony of the more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza, with banners and murals demanding their return often displayed in Jerusalem and around the world. <\/p>\n
His death, announced Sunday in a family statement, has sparked fresh heartbreak and horror for the hostage families who fear that time is running out for their loved ones seized by Hamas as pressure grows on the Israeli government to secure a ceasefire agreement. <\/p>\n
Goldberg-Polin, who was among the hundreds of young people attending the Nova music festival in southern Israel on October 7, was forced to hide in a bomb shelter with his friends as Hamas militants launched a surprise attack, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. <\/p>\n
As Hamas militants began to lob grenades into the bunker, Goldberg-Polin rushed to throw them out, before his arm was blown off from the elbow down, according to a firsthand account from his friend. When the gunfire settled, Goldberg-Polin was forcibly taken by Hamas gunmen. That was the last time his friend saw him. <\/p>\n
The first sign of life from Goldberg-Polin came in April, six months after his capture. <\/p>\n
He was shown in a hostage video released by Hamas, with part of his left arm missing and hair cropped short. Speaking in Hebrew, he said he had been \u201chere for almost 200 days\u201d and called on his parents to stay strong for him. <\/p>\n
More than four months later, the young Israeli American was confirmed dead, according to a statement from his family released by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh. The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time,\u201d the family said in the statement. <\/p>\n
The Israeli military said his body was found \u201cbrutally murdered\u201d alongside five other hostages in Hamas-run tunnels under the city of Rafah and that they were killed \u201ca short while\u201d before troops were able to reach them. <\/p>\n
The fate of Goldberg-Polin had tied the fate of the hostages and US policy over the Israel-Gaza war more inextricably together. His parents have been among the most vocal of the hostage families pushing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a deal securing their relatives\u2019 return. They\u2019ve also regularly met top US officials in Washington to press the case of the hostages. <\/p>\n
Days before his confirmed death, Goldberg-Polin\u2019s parents made an emotional plea for their son\u2019s return at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a political convention. But needing our only son and all of the cherished hostages home is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue,\u201d said Goldberg-Polin\u2019s father Jon Polin. <\/p>\n
Since their son\u2019s abduction, \u201cwe live on another planet,\u201d his mother Rachel Goldberg-Polin said. \u201cAnyone who is a parent or has had a parent can try to imagine the anguish and misery that Jon and I and all the hostage families are enduring.\u201d <\/p>\n
Their speech was greeted with an extended ovation and chants of \u201cbring him home\u201d by the thousands of Democratic delegates at the convention, echoing a phrase that has become a mantra in Israel for the families of those taken hostage. <\/p>\n
The couple wore pieces of tape with the number 320 written on them, marking the number of days their son had been held hostage. <\/p>\n
Born in Oakland, California, Goldberg-Polin immigrated to Israel with his family at age 7. <\/p>\n
An elder brother to two sisters, he was a \u201chappy go lucky, laid back, good humored, respectful and curious person\u201d who loved soccer and music, according to his mother. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe has been obsessed with geography and travel since he was a little boy,\u201d Rachel Goldberg-Polin said during her DNC speech. \u201cHis bedroom overflows with atlases, globes, maps and National Geographic magazines.\u201d <\/p>\n
On October 7, he went to the Nova music festival in a rural area near the Gaza-Israel border with his best friend Honor to celebrate his 23rd birthday, according to his mother. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs rockets began to fall Hersh, Honor and 27 other young festival goers took refuge in a 5-feet-by-8-feet bomb shelter. Terrorists began to throw grenades into the shelter, Honor stood in the doorway and repelled seven of those grenades before the eighth one killed him,\u201d Rachel Goldberg-Polin said. <\/p>\n
A young woman who was in the same shelter at the time had previously told his parents that Goldberg-Polin, who was left-handed, helped to throw grenades out of the bunker before getting his left arm blown off from the elbow down. He was later taken on a truck by gunmen and driven off, eyewitnesses told his parents. <\/p>\n
Footage taken on the day of that attack showed Goldberg-Polin being marched out of the shelter \u2013 with his hand blown off and bone protruding from his wrist \u2013 and thrown along with four others into the back of a truck. <\/p>\n
Days earlier, an Israeli soldier at the site of the Nova festival had shown Cooper the video. During the interview, Cooper realized the young man in the video was his interviewees\u2019 son. <\/p>\n
Not wanting to spring the news on them on live TV, Cooper contacted the couple after the interview and asked if they wanted to see the video. They later confirmed the man in the video was their son and asked that the video be shared more widely. <\/p>\n
The latest hostage deaths up the stakes for the Biden administration to push US ally Israel to find a way out of a devastating war in Gaza that has inflamed global public opinion and repeatedly threatened to spiral into an all-out regional conflict. <\/p>\n
It also puts pressure on Netanyahu to agree a deal as fears grow that more captives will die and the ongoing destruction in Gaza could spark a wider regional war. <\/p>\n
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the health ministry in the enclave. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a surplus of agony on all sides of the tragic conflict in the Middle East in a competition of pain. There are no winners,\u201d Jonathan Polin said at the DNC last month. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn an inflamed Middle East we know the one thing that can most immediately release pressure and bring calm to the entire region. A deal that brings this diverse group of 109 hostages home and ends the suffering of the innocent civilians in Gaza. The time is now.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the most recognizable faces of the heart-wrenching hostage crisis that sparked the Israel-Hamas war, has died, bringing a crushing end to a tireless and high-profile international campaign by his parents to secure his release. The 23-year-old Israeli American\u2019s ordeal had come to symbolize the pain and agony of the more than 100 hostages <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}