The bodies of six hostages captured by Hamas on Oct. 7 — including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin — have been recovered in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and President Joe Bidenannounced late Saturday, Aug. 31.
Israeli forces recovered the hostages’ remains in a tunnel under Rafah earlier in the day, according to reporting from CNN, CBS News and The Washington Post. They were killed by Hamas shortly before they were found, an IDF spokesperson said.
Along with 23-year-old Goldberg-Polin — a California native who was at the deadly Nova music festival in Israel, where more than 260 attendees were killed by Hamas — the bodies of five other hostages were uncovered: Carmel Gat, 40, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Alexander Lobanov, 32, Almog Sarusi, 27, and Ori Danino, 25, the Post reported.
Rachel Goldberg and Jonathan Polin at a news conference in 2023.
AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo
Three of the six hostages — Gat, Yerushalmi and Goldberg-Polin — were expected to be released following an eventual ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Israeli officials told CNN.
The framework of the agreement was agreed upon in July, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “delayed it,” one of the officials told CNN. “It’s way too late for the six who have been killed, but it’s time to reach an agreement,” they added.
In his statement announcing the deaths of the six hostages on Aug. 31, Biden, 81, said that he is “devastated and outraged.”
He also wrote that he has “gotten to know” Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, since their son’s capture, writing that “they have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable.”
“I admire them and grieve with them more deeply than words can express,” Biden added of pair, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month. “I know all Americans tonight will have them in their prayers, just as Jill and I will.”
Rachel Goldberg and her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Jonathan Polin
Vice President Kamala Harris echoed this sentiment in her own statement issued after the discovery of Goldberg-Polin’s body, writing, “Doug and my prayers are with Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, Hersh’s parents, and with everyone who knew and loved Hersh.”
In a statement of their own, Goldberg-Polin’s family wrote, per CBS News, that they are “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 statement concluded.
Rachel Goldberg and Jonathan Polin at the DNC in 2024.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty
Speaking with PEOPLE after Goldberg-Polin was captured by Hamas last October, his mom, Rachel, said, “My husband Jon and I, we have brand new 24/7 jobs: All we do is try to help save Hersh.”
“I am hopeful and I am praying. And I am a mother who would love nothing more than for my son to be home, and that’s all I can be focused on,” she added at the time. “Hersh is my only son and he’s my first child. He’s what made me a mother. I feel like God could have given him to anyone and he gave me the perfect son for me.”
Rachel also described the late California native as a “voracious reader” with “a dry, dark, but not mean sense of humor.”
“And he’s a really kind person and very, very respectful,” she continued. “I realized in this last week that I’ve never heard Hersh yell ever. He’s a very even-keeled person, and I really, really hope he’s a survivor.”
According to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which monitors the death toll amid the conflict, there have been over 7,000 Palestinian fatalities and over 330 Israeli deaths.
