Horrific footage emerged on Tuesday showing American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin looking dazed and shocked moments after Hamas terrorists released his arms.
Bones from Hersh’s shattered left limb were visible as he pulled himself into the bed of a truck at gunpoint by Hamas terrorists shortly after they opened fire on the Tribe of Nova music festival in the southern Negev on the morning of October 7, according to a video released by Anderson CNN’s Cooper.
Hersh’s arm came off when terrorists threw a grenade into a shelter sheltering festival-goers during the massacre.
The disturbing footage – captured by Cooper’s team from the phone of an Israeli soldier who later arrived at the scene – shows several Hamas fighters dragging three other men into a truck with Hersh before driving back to Gaza.
Cooper said he realized he had footage of Hersh’s possible arrest while conducting a remote live interview with the 23-year-old’s parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, last week.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was taken hostage by Hamas two weeks ago. Family Circulation video shows Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, with his arm severed as he sits in the bed of a truck at gunpoint by Hamas.CNN
He later sent the footage to his parents, and they confirmed that the bloody, shocked-looking young man was indeed their missing son.
“It’s horrible as a parent to your child at gunpoint, with one arm … the calmness with which he walked on his own two feet, pulling himself with one weak arm onto the truck, gave me real strength,” Polin told Cooper.
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Goldberg said of her son’s composure, “I think it was because of the shock.”
The parents said they were determined to bring their son home, two weeks after he and about 200 other hostages were taken captive by Hamas.
Goldberg-Polin’s parents say her “calmness” in the video has given them strength.CNN
They flew from Israel to Manhattan to go to the United Nations on Tuesday to lobby for action for their son and other captives.
“I personally feel like we have to keep running to the ends of the Earth to save him,” Goldberg told Cooper last week. “And we have to try to believe that somehow he got treatment and … he’s alive and he’s there.”
But the parents – who lived in California and then Connecticut before moving their family to Israel more than 10 years ago – admit there are difficult moments to keep hoping for good results.
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“There are moments in this universe that we’re living in now where you say, ‘Maybe he died on the truck, maybe he bled on the truck, maybe he died yesterday, maybe he died five minutes ago,'” Goldberg said.
Goldberg and Polin took Cooper during their interview to Hersh’s bedroom – which was reinforced with a steel door because it was also their home’s bomb shelter.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin (left) with his father, Jon Polin.AP
On Fridays, during Shabbat services, Goldberg stood on the family’s porch and chanted the blessing he usually said over his son’s head, he recalled.
“I shouted congratulations to him while raising my hands,” he said while crying.
In the emotional interview, the pair also paid tribute to Hersh’s friend, Aner Shapira, who died defending Hersh and about 27 others hiding in bomb shelters as Hamas descended.
“All the witnesses said there were 11 grenades that were thrown [into the shelter]and Aner threw eight,” explained Goldberg.
Shapira’s body was later found with the grenade still in his hand, he said.
“He’s a real hero,” Goldberg said.
Rachel Goldberg said the family would “keep running to the ends of the Earth” to bring her son home.REUTERS
As the war between Israel and Hamas escalates, the Hersh family calls on international leaders to defend their son and the other wounded hostages.
“The support is there, the empathy is there from the US. But we want more, we want action,” Polin told Cooper.
“There are hostages from around 30 countries. Why haven’t we seen yet … global leaders screaming for help for the wounded?”
Goldberg was recently on a 90-minute call between affected American families and President Joe Biden.
Hersh (bottom left) initially hid in a bomb shelter with about 29 other people, his parents said.CNN
“It’s a meeting of people who know what pain is,” he said.
Biden, 80, lost his first wife and infant daughter in a car accident in 1972. His son, Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015.
“There’s no playbook for this,” Goldberg added of the family’s day-to-day life as they await further news on Hersh’s condition.
“We’re on the head of a pin, and every direction you fall is a bad direction. So we’re just trying to balance the pinhead.”
Hersh’s parents described him as a “curious child” with a passion for travel that began at a young age.
At the time he was taken hostage, Hersh was counting down his long-awaited trip to India set for December 27.
Now, Goldberg said, she and the rest of Hersh’s family remain hopeful that he will return to them, “And he will go on that journey, with one hand.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
