‘We all failed you.’ Heartbreak at funeral for Israeli-American hostage in Jerusalem (2024)

Melanie Lidman | Associated Press

JERUSALEM — An Israeli-American family that became an international symbol in the struggle to free hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza lay their son to rest on Monday after the discovery of his body and those of five others brought a fresh outpouring of grief.

Tens of thousands of people thronged a Jerusalem cemetery to pay their respects to Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who became one of the most recognizable faces of the nearly year-old hostage crisis. Hundreds of others lined a major thoroughfare in Jerusalem, holding Israeli flags.

Many sobbed as his mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, said goodbye to her son and told him, “My sweet boy, finally, finally, finally you are free!”

She and her husband, Jon, shared stories of their 23-year-old son, who they called funny, curious and relentless in the pursuit of justice. They said they hoped his death might be a turning point in drawn-out negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin said the past 330 days had been “such torment that closed my throat and made my soul burn with third-degree burns.” She told her son: “I no longer need to worry about you, you are no longer in danger."

His father added: “We failed you, we all failed you. ... Maybe your death is the stone, the fuel, that will bring home the 101 other hostages.”

Israel’s military announced Sunday that the bodies of Goldberg-Polin and the five others had been discovered in an underground tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli forensics experts said they had been shot at close range and died on Thursday or Friday, shortly before Israeli troops reached the tunnel in southern Gaza where they were held.

Their deaths sparked protests by hundreds of thousands of people in Israel, with many saying the hostages could have been returned alive if a cease-fire deal had been reached.

Three of the six hostages, including Goldberg-Polin, were reportedly scheduled to be released in the first phase of a cease-fire proposal discussed in July.

“I apologize on behalf of the state of Israel that we failed to protect you in the terrible disaster of Oct. 7, that we failed to bring you home safely,” Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said in a eulogy.

Goldberg-Polin, a native of Berkeley, California, was attending a music festival when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. He lost part of his left arm to a grenade blast during the attack. In April, a Hamas-issued video, showed him speaking under duress with his left hand missing, sparking new protests in Israel.

Hamas accuses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of dragging out cease-fire talks by issuing new demands, including for lasting Israeli control over two strategic corridors in Gaza. Netanyahu claimed on Monday night he has accepted Biden’s previous proposals and blamed Hamas for the lack of progress.

Netanyahu also has blamed Hamas for the deaths of Goldberg-Polin and the five others, saying “whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal.”

Smaller protests continued in Israel on Monday, and Israel’s largest trade union held a general strike, the first since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, to pressure the government for a deal.

Goldberg-Polin’s U.S.-born parents became two of the most high-profile relatives of hostages on the international stage. They met with U.S. President Joe Biden, Pope Francis and others. They addressed the United Nations and the Democratic National Convention, urging the release of all hostages.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin ended many speeches with a message for her son: “We love you, stay strong, survive.”

At the funeral, she echoed the plea she had made for months in the hope that somehow he could hear.

“And Hersh, there’s one last thing I need you to do for us,” she said. "Now, I need you to help us stay strong, and I need you to help us survive.”