Hamas releases heartbreaking video of slain Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, family calls it a ‘wake-up call to the world’
Hamas has released heartbreaking new video of slain Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the six hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza last week.
Goldberg-Polin, 23, was seen in the Hamas video for the first time since the terror group cruelly teased the footage on Monday, claiming it would air the victims’ “last messages.”
“Mama, Dada, Leebi and Orly, I love you, I miss you,” Goldberg-Polin, looking disheveled and dirty, calmly told his parents and two sisters as he gazed directly into the camera.
“And I’m thinking about you every single day. I know you’re doing everything you can and that you’re out in the streets trying to bring me home. Now I need you to stay strong for me. Keep on fighting, and hopefully, I believe I’ll be home soon. Don’t stop. I love you.”
It is unclear when the video was recorded, but Goldberg-Polin has been previously featured in past Hamas propaganda videos where he was forced to criticize and blame Israeli’s government for the fate of the hostages.
The new video, released late Thursday, appeared to be taken later than when his last video was released in April, as Goldberg-Polin could be seen with longer hair and a more prominent beard and mustache.
The hostage implored the US government to stop the war in Gaza because his faith in Israel had faltered, a sentiment he was apparently forced to state.
“Since I arrived in Gaza, I’ve survived with almost no medical care, little food and little water. I can’t remember the last time I saw the sun or took a breath of fresh air,” Goldberg-Polin said.
“And worst of all is my own country, Israel, has been trying to bomb me nonstop so they don’t have to take responsibility and make a deal for their mistake and for leaving me behind.”
After Goldberg-Polin delivered his final messages to his loved ones, the footage cut out with the haunting premonition from Hamas: “Time is running out…”
Parents of the slain man authorized the release of the video, saying the world needed to see the horrors their son suffered before he was murdered.
“This must serve as an immediate wake-up call to the world to take action today to secure the release of the remaining 101 hostages before it is too late. No other family should go through what our family (and the families of the other recently executed hostages) have endured,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin said in a statement Thursday.
Goldberg-Polin became a symbol of Hamas’ brutality after his arm was blown off by a grenade when Hamas stormed the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 and slaughtered 364 civilians.
His bloody abduction was captured on Hamas bodycams, with his parents pushing for those videos to also be publicly released as a means to urge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and American officials to secure a hostage exchange deal.
Rachel Goldberg mourned her son’s death during his funeral service in Jerusalem on Monday, asking for his forgiveness after dying in Hamas captivity.
“If there was something we could have done to save you, and we didn’t think of it, I beg your forgiveness. We tried so very hard, so deeply and desperately. I’m sorry,” Rachel said.
Along with Goldberg-Polin, the victims whose bodies were recovered Saturday were identified as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; Alexander Lobanov, 33, and Carmel Gat, 40.
Israel’s health ministry confirmed that all six hostages were killed by short-range shots two to three days before their bodies were found.
The militant group had previously published similar gut-wrenching clips on Telegram of three of the other six slain hostages — Yerushalmi, Lobanov and Gat — also giving their emotional final words before their death.
“Bombing here never stops, and we are afraid for our lives. We are scared of dying here,’’ an exhausted looking Yerushalmi, said in her video.
Her family called it a “shocking psychological terror video.”
Goldberg-Polin was among eight Israeli-Americans who remained under Hamas captivity.
Officials have previously confirmed the deaths of Judith Weinstein Haggai, Gadi Haggai and Itay Chen.
The remaining American citizens trapped in Gaza have been identified as Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen.
