The parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American who was abducted from Israel on October 7, 2023, and tragically killed by Hamas terrorists after being held captive for 11 months, recorded a video appeal to President Donald Trump following the recent release of hostages.
Families Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin reacted to the freedom of civilians Eli Sharabi (52), Or Levy (34), and Ohad Ben Ami (56) in a video shared on Instagram. These individuals were among the 250 people captured during the Hamas-led assault on Israel. The visibly weak and emaciated Israeli hostages were compelled to speak at a handover event by Hamas, causing widespread outrage. In return, Israel released close to 200 Palestinian prisoners last Saturday.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin expressed their joy over Eli, Or, and Ohad’s release in a video posted on the “Bring.Hersh.Home” account, which has amassed over 173,000 followers. She also revealed a connection between Or and Hersh, explaining that both were abducted together from the same bomb shelter on the same truck on October 7. Or’s brother, Mikha’el, reached out to them after Shabbat to share that Or had asked about Hersh’s well-being that morning, mistakenly assuming Hersh had already been set free, only to learn that Hersh was tragically murdered five months earlier.
Jon Polin then addressed Trump, as well as U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, imploring them to secure the release of the remaining 76 hostages this week.
In their first hours as free men, the three Israeli hostages released on Saturday were beginning to confront the tragic realities to which they returned
Sharabi returned to Israel after 16 months of captivity. He was told only after his return that his wife and two daughters had been killed in the Oct. 7 attack, according to reports in Israeli media.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was murdered by Hamas. (Israel’s Minister of Defense)
Levy “was not sure” what happened to his wife on that day, his mother, Geula, told Israeli media on Saturday, adding that he was not exposed to media reports while in Gaza. Levy was taken from a bomb shelter near the Nova music festival in southern Israel and his wife, Einav, was killed in the attack. His mother said he also asked about Goldberg-Polin, who was abducted from the same bomb shelter. Levy was reunited Saturday with his 3-year-old son.
A third released hostage, Ben Ami, sat huddled with his wife and three daughters in a hospital corridor. He told them: “I have a lot of things to catch up on.” Ben Ami is a resident of Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest hit communities on Oct. 7. “I need to get answers to a lot of things, and I know some of them will be difficult answers,” he said in footage released by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office. “I need to know what happened on that day.”
It was the fifth swap of hostages for prisoners since the current Israel-Hamas ceasefire began on Jan. 19.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
