Video emerges of American hostage urging US to end Gaza conflict before his death
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza Strip continue, Gaza Strip, Oct. 12, 2023 (AA Photo)
A video has surfaced showing 23-year-old American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was later found dead in Gaza, urging President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to end the conflict in Gaza. The footage, released by Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, on Telegram, does not specify when it was recorded.
In the video, Goldberg-Polin pleads: “President Biden and Anthony Blinken, I ask you and all my fellow Americans to do everything in your power to stop this war, end this madness, and bring me home immediately.”
Goldberg-Polin describes surviving with minimal medical aid, food, and water since arriving in Gaza. “I don’t remember the last time I saw the sun or smelled the air outside,” he states. “Worst of all, my country tries to bomb me endlessly instead of taking responsibility, reaching an agreement, and leaving me alive.”
The Qassam Brigades highlighted that Israelis would only achieve “death and failure” through military pressure and emphasized that “freedom and life” could be achieved through a prisoner exchange deal.
On Sept. 1, the Israeli military announced finding the bodies of six Israeli hostages, including Goldberg-Polin, in a tunnel in Rafah, Gaza. Hamas claimed that the hostages were killed in Israeli bombings carried out with “American weapons.”
A group representing the families of Israeli hostages in Gaza held Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for the deaths, accusing him of insisting on maintaining the occupation along the Gaza-Egypt border and undermining prisoner exchange deals.
