The family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the 23-year-old American-Israeli who was taken hostage from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, has announced his death.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” the family said in a statement posted to the Bring Hersh Home Instagram account on Sunday morning. “The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.”
The announcement came several hours after the Israeli army announced that it was retrieving bodies that might have been hostages from Gaza. Goldberg-Polin’s name was on the list of those rumored to have been found dead.
Goldberg-Polin became a face of the hostage crisis thanks to the advocacy of his parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin.
Rachel Goldberg in particular became synonymous with the anguish of Israeli mothers as she posted daily messages on Facebook, flew around the world to meet with anyone who would listen and inspired a ritual that has taken off among some Jews: to wear a piece of tape marking the number of days since Oct. 7. Sunday marks day 331.
Over the months, she spoke at the United Nations, met with the president and had an audience with the pope. Earlier this month, she and her husband addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, holding the convention center in rapt silence and gaining the attention of 20 million TV viewers as they called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and she buckled in pain as she addressed Hersh directly.
“Hersh, Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you,” she said. “Stay strong. Survive.” She repeated that mantra last week at the border of Gaza, where the Goldberg-Polins and other families addressed their loved ones by loudspeaker.
Goldberg-Polin survived Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 by taking refuge in a bunker with many other young people, most of whom died that day despite the heroic effort of his friend Aner Shapira to repel grenades thrown at them. Goldberg-Polin’s arm was blown off. In late April, he was seen alive in a hostage video released by Hamas in which he acknowledged the impending Passover holiday and told his family that he knew about what they were doing to try to bring him home.
President Joe Biden acknowledged Goldberg-Polin’s death in a statement, saying, “I am devastated and outraged.” He revealed that Goldberg-Polin and other murdered hostages had been found in a tunnel below the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Praising Goldberg-Polin’s parents as “relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages,” Biden said, “I admire them and grieve with them more deeply than words can express. I know all Americans tonight will have them in their prayers, just as Jill and I will. I have worked tirelessly to bring their beloved Hersh safely to them and am heartbroken by the news of his death.”
Negotiations over the release of the hostages have been ongoing for months and were reported to be gaining momentum in recent weeks before stalling as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’ leadership did not agree on terms. An announcement from a group of hostage families said Goldberg-Polin had been “presumed to be alive in the past days” before being murdered. The Israeli army confirmed that account, saying that Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages had been killed as Israeli troops closed in on the tunnel where they were being held.
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