Hamas released a video on Wednesday apparently showing Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a dual Israeli-American citizen held hostage since the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. It appears to be the first time that Mr. Goldberg-Polin, who was seriously injured in the attack, has been shown alive since his captivity began.
It is not clear when the video was filmed, but Mr Goldberg-Polin, who was 23 when he was kidnapped, says he has been held hostage for almost 200 days, suggesting the video was carried out recently. He also wishes his parents happy holidays, which could be a reference to the currently celebrated Passover week.
Mr. Goldberg-Polin’s family believes he is the person in the video and said it was the first evidence they had seen since his kidnapping that he is alive, a spokesperson for the police said. family, Matt Krieger.
Mr Goldberg-Polin was attending the Tribe of Nova music festival in Re’im, Israel, when Hamas gunmen attacked, killing hundreds of people. He lost part of his arm while defending an emergency shelter alongside his friend Aner Shapira, who was killed, according to survivors of the attack.
Rights groups and international law experts say a hostage video is, by definition, made under duress and that the statements contained therein are usually coerced. Israeli officials have called the videos a form of “psychological warfare” and experts say their production may constitute a war crime.
The circumstances in which the video was filmed are unclear and the footage appears to have been edited. The information was broadcast on Hamas social networks around 5 p.m. in Israel.
Mr. Goldberg-Polin repeatedly discusses his need for medical attention and shows his injured arm on camera. The October attack left him “struggling to survive with severe injuries all over his body,” he says in the video, adding that during his captivity he was “without water, without food or sunlight and without treatment that I have needed for so long.
He also criticizes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his government. “As you organize family holiday meals, think of us, the hostages who are still there, in hell, underground,” he says.
The Hostage Families Forum said in a statement that “hostages must be the top priority.”
“This heartbreaking video is an urgent call for rapid and decisive action to resolve this horrific humanitarian crisis and ensure the safe return of our loved ones,” the group said.
Mr. Goldberg-Polin, who has dual Israeli and American citizenship, was born in Berkeley, California, and was in elementary school when the family moved from Richmond, Virginia, to Israel. He was taken captive to Gaza after part of his life. the arm was torn off during assault on roadside bomb shelter.
His family members have pieced together at least part of what happened to him through other families and survivors of the attack, as well as by reviewing text messages and phone conversations. They said they believed he was in desperate need of medical attention due to injuries to his arm, believed to have been caused by a grenade.
In an essay written for the New York Times opinion section shortly after his kidnapping, his mother, Rachel Goldberg, described her son as gentle and kind girl who went to great lengths to raise money for charity in Africa.
“I don’t know if he’s dead or alive or if I’ll ever see him again,” she wrote.
His mother told reporters that his family would mark Passover this week with a Seder and “they were very clear that if 15 minutes goes by, we just can’t do it and we have to cry, then we will cry.”
Mr. Goldberg-Polin ends the video by addressing his parents directly.
“I love you so much and I miss you,” he told them. “It won’t be a happy holiday for me, but I wish you one.”
Malachi Browne And Isabelle Kershner reports contributed.
