An Israeli American taken hostage during Hamas‘s Oct. 7 attack on Israel is dead, his family confirmed on Saturday.
In a statement posted to Instagram, the family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old male who was taken hostage by Hamas during its attack on the Supernova music festival, said they are “devastated” following the death of their son.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh. The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time,” the family said.
The confirmation of Goldberg-Polin’s death comes after the IDF announced on Saturday that they located “a number of bodies” in Gaza.
President Joe Biden confirmed this in a statement, saying six bodies of hostages held by Hamas were found “in a tunnel under the city of Rafah.”
“Earlier today, in a tunnel under the city of Rafah, Israeli forces recovered six bodies of hostages held by Hamas. We have now confirmed that one of the hostages killed by these vicious Hamas terrorists was an American citizen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin,” he said.
Biden proceeded to describe Goldberg-Polin as one of the “innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on October 7,” referencing how “He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre.”
In April, Hamas posted a video of Hersh Goldberg-Polin on Telegram, in which he was noticeably missing a part of his left arm and speaking under duress.
In the video, he said, “I was arrested on Oct. 7 at the Nova concert in Re’im. Instead, I found myself struggling to survive with serious injuries all over my body. Nevertheless, I took it upon myself to protect myself and the people who were afraid around me because there was no one to protect us that day.”
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Hersh Goldberg-Polin is the son of Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, who both gave an emotional speech at the Democratic National Convention nearly two weeks ago.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Hersh Goldberg-Polin was born in California but moved to Israel when he was 7 years old. He was described as loving soccer and electronic music.