What happened to Hersh-Goldberg Polin? Parents of American-Israeli man derive 'strength' from video of his capture by Hamas
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL: American-Israeli man Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, is one of the many people who were taken hostage by Hamas militants from the Tribe of Nova music festival on October 7.
In video footage recently released by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Hersh could be seen sitting on a truck bed looking eerily calm and dazed. It was also just a few moments after he was hit with Hamas’s grenade that gravely injured his right arm.
In an interview with Cooper, Hersh’s parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin described the harrowing video of the suffering of their son and their ordeals as the parents of a war hostage.
Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin said they'd ‘keep running to the end of the Earth to save him’
The horrifying video of Hersh’s getting captured was released on Tuesday, October 24. In the video, the bone from Hersh’s left arm was clearly visible after he was impacted by Hamas’s grenade.
He could be seen lifting himself up on the bed of a truck under gunpoint by Hamas militants, per the New York Post.
The footage was captured by Anderson Cooper’s team who filmed off an Israeli soldier’s phone. The footage also shows three other men being dragged by Hamas to the truck before driving off to Gaza.
During a remote interview with Hersh’s parents, Cooper realized he might have had footage of the 23-year-old getting captured by Hamas soldiers.
When he sent the footage to Goldberg and Polin, they confirmed the bleeding man was indeed their son.
Polin told Cooper, “As horrible as it is as a parent to your kid under gunpoint, with one arm … the composure with which he’s walking on his own legs, pulling himself with his one weak hand onto the truck, gave me a real dose of strength.”
Goldberg, however, theorized that Hersh was looking dazed because of the shock of the attack.
She said, “I think it was from shock.”
The grieving parents said they are determined to bring their son back home. They flew to Manhattan to go to the United Nations on Tuesday to plead for the safe return of their son.
Goldberg said to Cooper, “I personally feel like we have to keep running to the end of the Earth to save him,” before adding, “And we have to try to go believing that somehow he got treatment and … he’s alive and he’s there.”
While they are praying for their son’s safe return, they are also finding it difficult to keep hopes high always.
The mother said, “There are moments in this universe that we now live in when you say, ‘Maybe he died on the truck, maybe he bled out on that truck, maybe he died yesterday, maybe he died five minutes ago’.”
'No parent should ever be subjected to this sight'
In an interview with ABC, Jon Polin grieved, "No parent should ever be subjected to this sight."
However, he also conceded, "That being said ... Knowing that he spent an hour to an hour and a half being subjected to this massacre, and that he then gets up with an arm freshly blown off, and walks on his own two feet, under his own strength, towards this truck, and uses his weak hand -- his only hand now -- to pull himself onto the truck while bloodied, but looking sort of composed."
Polin added, "It gives me a sense of, he's got a perseverance and a fortitude that we hope carries him through this."
Goldberg added that she is soothing herself by repeating, "Stay strong, survive. Stay strong, survive."
Polin also praised Presiden Joe Biden for being supportive as he said he "listened and he cried."
He concluded, "This is a global issue and it needs to be seen that way and it needs to stay on the agenda."
