A propaganda video published by Hamas on Thursday shows American Hersh Goldberg-Polinone of six Hamas hostages killed last weekend in Gaza, should be an “immediate wake-up call for the world” to focus on securing a armistice agreementsaid his parents.
“We are in the midst of a seven-day Jewish mourning period following the burial of our son, Hersh,” Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin said in a statement Thursday shared by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the hostages’ families.
But the couple – outspoken supporters of a deal to end Israel’s nearly year-long assault on the Gaza Strip and secure the return of those still trapped – said they felt compelled to speak out again after Hamas released Hersh’s new video.
The photo was taken before he was killed, nearly 11 months after he was taken hostage at the Supernova music festival, where he also lost part of his arm in an explosion during the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.
The video was one of a series Hamas released this week showing the six hostages, who Israeli officials say were killed by their captors before they could be rescued by Israeli forces. Hamas has said militants are operating under new instructions on how to handle hostages as Israeli forces approach the locations where they are being held.
The forum accuses Hamas of perpetrating “psychological terror” against the families of hostages through the “calculated release of disturbing images.”
In their statement, Goldberg and Polin said they were nonetheless okay with the video being shared widely. They called on the international community to “take action today” to secure the release of the hostages still in Hamas captivity “before it is too late.”
“No other family should have to go through what our family (and the families of the other recently executed hostages) went through,” they said.
About 100 people are believed to remain in Hamas captivity after some 250 were captured and some 1,200 killed on October 7, Israeli officials said. At least a third of the hostages are believed to be dead.
Goldberg and Polin also spoke out about the need for compromise in negotiations to end the suffering not only of hostages and their families, but also of Palestinians in Gaza. More than 40,800 people have been killed in the enclave, local officials said, since Israel launched its deadly offensive in response to Hamas attacks, marking a major escalation in a decades-long conflict.
At Hersh’s funeral on Monday, his mother said she prayed her son’s death would be a “turning point in this terrible situation we are all caught up in.”
Yet there has been little sign of progress in the talks since then, with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu he dismissed intense pressure from all sides to drop his demand to keep Israeli troops in an area along the Gaza-Egypt border.
On Thursday, he continued to insist that there was still no deal, even as Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was “90 percent agreement.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
