By Emily Rose
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – 1000’s of mourners lined the streets of Jerusalem on Monday to bid farewell to slain American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of many best-known faces of these seized by Hamas-led gunmen on Oct. 7.
Goldberg-Polin’s physique, together with the our bodies of fellow hostages Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino, had been recovered by Israeli troops on Sunday, triggering an outpouring of grief and rage amongst Israelis traumatized by probably the most devastating assaults of their nation’s historical past.
“I feel he was like a symbol of the hostages,” Amnon Sadovsky, a 70-year-old instructor informed Reuters. “We need to have humanity for all people – for Jews and for Arabs.”
Goldberg-Polin, 23, who immigrated to Israel from California on the age of seven, was on the Nova music competition in southern Israel on Oct 7, celebrating his birthday when Hamas-led militants launched their onslaught, killing 1200 individuals and taking 253 hostages.
Footage shot in the course of the onslaught confirmed a number of Hamas militants surrounding the roadside bomb shelter the place he was hiding, and throwing grenades via the doorway. Most of these hiding inside had been killed, whereas Hersh misplaced the decrease a part of his left arm.
Video confirmed him being loaded with different hostages onto a pickup van, his harm clearly seen.
He was final seen alive in a Hamas video launched in April, addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after which his household, giving the primary public signal that he had survived his accidents.
On Sunday, following the return of the our bodies, an post-mortem revealed he and the opposite 5 hostages had been shot at shut vary inside 48 hours earlier than Israeli forces arrived and recovered the our bodies in a tunnel beneath Gaza.
In a picturesque Jerusalem neighbourhood near the place his household lived, crimson and white banners bearing his picture – a smiling younger man with an open shirt and a small beard – dot the streets and grasp from balconies, with the message “Free Hersh”.
The dying of the six, after practically 11 months in captivity, sparked a wave of protests, with round 500,000 individuals taking to the streets in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Sunday evening that continued into Monday with a basic strike to strain Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convey the hostages residence.
Talks to convey the hostages again and finish the combating in Gaza, the place Israel’s marketing campaign to crush Hamas has destroyed a lot of the Gaza Strip and killed greater than 40,000 individuals, in accordance with Palestinian figures, have stalled.
Hersh’s dad and mom, Rachel and Jon Goldberg-Polin, have labored ceaselessly to lift consciousness of the hostages’ plight since their son’s abduction, assembly officers, together with U.S. President Joe Biden.
In a tearful speech on the Nationwide Democratic Conference in Chicago final month, Hersh’s mom directed Hersh to “stay strong, stay alive.”
On Saturday evening, simply earlier than preliminary reviews of his dying started to unfold, gamers from Hapoel Jerusalem, the soccer membership he supported, took to the sphere for his or her first match of the season carrying black shirts with Hersh’s picture in opposition to a crimson hourglass.
“I’ve been hoping and imagining Hersh coming back,” stated Nadia Levene, a good friend of the household.
“The most amazing thing is Rachel and Jon and their strength and how they went all around the world to save their son,” Levene stated. “They couldn’t have done more.”
