Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Israeli American whose family led calls for hostage deal, killed in Gaza

Nearly 11 months after he was taken hostage by Hamas, Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin was found dead in Gaza.

President Joe Biden said Saturday night that Goldberg-Polin was among six hostages held by Hamas whose bodies recovered in a tunnel under Rafah. The Israel Defense Forces said Hamas killed the six shortly before Israeli forces reached them.

“Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on October 7,” Biden said. “He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre. He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world.”

The Israel Defense Forces identified the five hostages also killed as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Master Sgt. Ori Danino.

Goldberg-Polin was an older brother to two sisters and a fan of the Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team. He was born in the United States and moved to Israel with his family when he was 7, the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters said.

Goldberg-Polin’s parents have been outspoken in their efforts to bring home their son and the other hostages, launching a social media campaign and making regular media appearances. They, along with the families of other hostages, have relentlessly urged Netanyahu and the Israeli government, as well as the international community, to focus on the plight of their loved ones.

In video of the Oct. 7 attack, Goldberg-Polin was seen injured by a grenade blast that blew off his left forearm. Video then shows him being loaded into a truck at gunpoint that was seemingly headed for Gaza during the chaotic violence at the Supernova music festival in southern Israel near kibbutz Re’im.

He was again seen on a video released by Hamas’ military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, in April. The circumstances under which the video was recorded remains unclear, and it is unclear whether Goldberg-Polin spoke of his own accord or if he was told to give a certain message.

After the video of Goldberg-Polin was released, his mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, said she believed Netanyahu’s government should compromise in order to stop the suffering in both Israel and Gaza. She added at the time that she saw her son and other hostages’ suffering, along with the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza, as innocent people paying the price on both sides.

Jon Polin, Goldberg-Polin’s father, said after he saw the video that his son did not look like himself and that the video encouraged them to keep fighting.

In July, Goldberg-Polin’s parents joined the families of other American hostages during Netanyahu’s D.C. visit to again share their message: Bring the hostages home now.

At the Democratic National Convention, his parents again pleaded for his return.

“Since then, we live on another planet,” said Rachel Goldberg-Polin about her son’s abduction. “Anyone 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.”

Biden said in a Saturday statement that he was “devastated and outraged” to learn of Goldberg-Polin’s death, highlighting how his parents have been “relentless and irrepressible champions of their son.”

“I know all Americans tonight will have them in their prayers, just as Jill and I will,” Biden said of Goldberg-Polin’s parents. “I have worked tirelessly to bring their beloved Hersh safely to them and am heartbroken by the news of his death. It is as tragic as it is reprehensible.” 

Approximately 250 people were taken hostage during Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack, and over 1,200 people were killed in Israel. About 100 remain in Hamas custody. More than 40,000 people have been killed in Israel’s military offensive in response to the terror attack.