US President Joe Biden confirmed on Saturday that Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin was among six bodies recovered by Israeli forces in Gaza.
“Israeli forces found six hostages’ bodies today in a tunnel beneath Rafah,” Biden stated. “One of them was Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American citizen.”
Goldberg-Polin, 23, was taken during the October 7 attack on southern Israel by militants. His family had previously addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and recently rallied near the Gaza border, with his mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, urging him to “stay strong” and “survive.”
On October 7, Goldberg-Polin was hiding in a bomb shelter when it was surrounded and attacked by gunmen. A Hamas video from that day showed him being loaded onto a truck with injuries, including the loss of part of his left arm. In a proof-of-life video released by Hamas on April 24, he described the conditions as “hell” and revealed his left arm had been amputated.
Hamas’s attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians. Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza have claimed at least 40,691 lives, predominantly women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
