American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin was confirmed dead by his family on their Instagram early on Sunday morning, after his body and the body of others were retrieved from Gaza by the IDF.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh.” The Goldberg-Polin family announced.
“The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.”
Goldberg-Polin was born in California, and moved to Israel when he was 7. He was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7. He received much media attention due to the activism of his parents to free him from captivity.
His mother in particular was been a central activist in trying to release all of the hostages, and was named to Time’s 2024 annual TIME100 list of most influential people in the world. His parents recently spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to advocate for his release along with the remaining hostages in captivity.
Hersh had a sense of humor
Hersh was described as funny with a dry, dark sense of humor. Hersh was obsessed with soccer and loves electronic music and has a sense of wanderlust that took him on a solo nine week trip through Europe in 2023 not long before October 7.
Hersh’s parents had recently traveled towards the Gaza border this week, where she and other families of hostages used giant speakers to call out to their family members.
In April, Hamas released a video of Goldberg-Polin when he was still alive on their Telegram channel, with his arm amputated due to it being blown off in October.
Goldberg-Polin’s childhood friend in Chicago, Jeremiah Smith, described him as “the little brother I never had.” The two met when Hersh was just two years old, and Smith, at the age of six, was a student of Hersh’s grandmother, Marcy Goldberg, at a school on Chicago’s near north side. Smith has a truck with digital screens that showed Hersh’s face.
“I wouldn’t want nobody else to drive the truck,” Smith said, clutching the Star of David around his neck. “I just want that guy to come home.”
Hannah Sarisohn, Julie Mangurten Weinberg, and Kate Armanini contributed to this report.
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