The parents of 23-year-old American Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who Hamas kidnapped in its Oct. 7 attack in Israel, have made a plea for their son’s safe return at the Democratic National Convention (DNC).
Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, murdering 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking another 250 people hostage, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was attending the music festival Tribe of Nova to celebrate his birthday at the time.
On Aug. 21 at the DNC, his parents Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg said the war has produced a “surplus of agony” for everyone involved and that “there are no winners” in what has become a “competition of pain.”
“In 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,” Polin said.
In the 320 days since their son was taken into captivity, Polin and Goldberg said, it’s like they “live on another planet.”
“Anyone who is a parent, or has had a parent, can try to imagine the anguish and misery that John and I and all the hostage families are enduring,” Goldberg said.
According to Goldberg, when the Hamas attack began, Hersh sought safety with a group of others in a bomb shelter. But the terrorists threw several grenades inside that blew his arm off. He was then taken back to Gaza, where he has been in captivity ever since.
Since that day, the families of the American hostages meet regularly and are “heartened that both Democratic and Republican leaders demonstrate their bipartisan support for our hostages being released,” Polin said.
“This 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,” he said.
The Gaza cease-fire talks have stalled in recent weeks over several key points, including whether Israeli troops will remain stationed at the Philadelphi corridor in southern Gaza after the war. Hamas insists that the IDF fully withdraw or it will not consent to the deal. However, Israel has said it will not accept leaving any Hamas military capacity in Gaza intact, as they could regroup and stage another attack on Israel the moment their troops leave.
