Hamas hostage video: Hersh Goldberg-Polin's parents react to 'painful' proof of life
Hersh Goldberg Polin's parents, Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jonathan Polin, react to the Hamas hostage video of their injured son in an interview with NBC News.
JERUSALEM — The last glimpse they had of their son was a shaky video showing him in the back of a pickup truck with part of his left arm blown off by a Hamas grenade.
Now Rachel Goldberg-Polin, 54, and Jon Polin, 53, have the relief and distress of seeing him in a new video released by the militant group — proof of life they waited 201 days to see.
“Initially, we were just crying,” Goldberg-Polin said in an interview in Jerusalem on Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after Hamas released the video of her son, Hersh. The video shows his arm is visibly severed below the elbow, and he calls on the Israeli government to make a deal to release the remaining hostages in Gaza.
“On one hand, this was a tremendous validation,” she said, but “on the other hand, we see him — he is in captivity, he is obviously suffering.”
She added: “That is very painful. I mean, ‘painful’ is too small of a word of what it's like for any parent.”
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