Israel recovers bodies of six hostages, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old Berkeley native whose parents had tirelessly championed his cause during his months of captivity at the hands of Hamas, was among six hostages whose bodies have been recovered from the Gaza Strip, Israeli authorities said early Sunday.

Goldberg-Polin, whose parents addressed the Democratic National Convention last month in a powerful appeal for his freedom and that of the other captives, was the best known internationally among some 250 men, women and children who were seized on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters burst out of the seaside enclave and attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people.

The catastrophic war that ensued has left more than 40,000 Palestinians dead, according to Gaza health officials, and left the small territory in ruins, displacing virtually all its inhabitants.

President Biden, speaking soon after Goldberg-Polin’s family confirmed they had been told he was among the dead, said in a statement that he was “devastated and outraged.”

“Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel,” Biden said. “He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre. He had just turned 23.”

The Los Angeles Times spoke with Goldberg-Polin’s parents three days after the Oct. 7 attack, as they were only beginning to process the shock of his capture. At the time, they expressed determination to secure his release.

Since then, the two had helped spearhead a worldwide campaign that included meetings with Biden and Pope Francis.

An undated photo of Hersh Goldberg-Polin

(Polin-Goldberg family)

Israel had been on edge all Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, after word emerged that the bodies of several hostages had been recovered by Israeli troops. On Sunday, the country awoke to the news of the confirmed deaths of the six hostages, who were mainly in their 20s; the oldest was 40.

As the war with Hamas has dragged on, Israel has periodically confirmed the deaths of hostages, but these latest fatalities were an especially devastating national blow — in part because of the youth of the victims, and because political fury has been growing against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli leader has been accused by senior members of his government of failing to prioritize a hostage deal while pressing ahead with the goal — unachievable, in the view of many military analysts — of destroying Hamas.

Demonstrations had taken place in Israeli cities only hours before word of the latest deaths, and organizers vowed mass protests on Sunday.

All six captives were killed shortly before a planned rescue attempt by Israeli forces, the army said.

Goldberg-Polin and four of the other five were taken captive at a music festival in the desert just outside Gaza, where attackers hunted, killed and captured hundreds of attendees who made frantic calls to family and the army, pleading for rescue.

The circumstances of Goldberg-Polin’s capture were particularly harrowing: his left arm was blown off below the elbow by a grenade while he and a group tried to find haven in a roadside bomb shelter. In April, a video issued by Hamas had shown him injured, but alive.

The other dead hostages were identified by the Israeli military as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; and Alexander Lobanov, 33 — also seized from the music festival — and Carmel Gat, 40, who was abducted from Kibbutz Beeri nearby.

The army said in a statement that the bodies were recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, less than a mile from where hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a 52-year-old from Israel’s Bedouin minority, was rescued last week.

Army spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that according to preliminary information, the six were “cruelly murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them.” Fuller details were continuing to emerge Sunday.

Hamas, in a statement, did not directly confirm the deaths but suggested that the Israeli military was to blame.

Top Israeli security officials had pleaded with Netanyahu only days before the announced deaths to strike a deal with Hamas for the freedom of the remaining hostages and the repatriation of remains of others who died or were killed in captivity. But the prime minister has said that continuing to wage war on Hamas is the path to bringing them home, and imposed conditions that Hamas has refused to meet.

A forum of hostage families furiously blamed government officials for failing to strike an accord.

“A deal for the return of the hostages has been on the table for over two months,” it said in a statement. “Were it not for the delays, sabotage, and excuses those whose deaths we learned about this morning would likely still be alive.”

The Goldberg-Polin family issued a statement early Sunday Israel time confirming his death, thanking supporters and asking for privacy. His American-born parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, immigrated to Israel when he was 8.

On Aug. 21, the two addressed the Democratic National Convention, calling for the release of the remaining hostages and an end to vast humanitarian suffering among Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

“Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you, stay strong, survive,” his mother told the somber convention audience, which then erupted in chants of “Bring them home!”

Prior to Sunday’s announcement, Israel said about one-third of the 108 captives still missing in Gaza were believed dead.

Anger and sorrow already roiled Israel, even before the full sequence of events had been made public. Previous rescue attempts have been largely unsuccessful, although a few hostages were freed during military operations that killed scores of Palestinians.

On June 8, Israeli commandos stormed an apartment where hostage Noa Argamani was being held in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Three male hostages were freed in a separate but nearly simultaneous raid.

In December, Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who had escaped their captors, and Hamas has announced the killing of a number of others, blaming Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue efforts.