The family of an Israeli captive whose body was retrieved during the weekend urged action to release other hostages held in Gaza, as their son appeared in a video pleading with the US to help end the conflict.
Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas resistance group, released late Thursday a final message from Israeli captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who addressed President Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, pleading for American citizens to help end the conflict.
The 23-year-old dual US-Israeli citizen, who was talking in English, described the situation as “madness” and slammed the Israeli government.
“My own country, Israel, has been trying to bomb me nonstop,” Goldberg-Polin said in the 1-minute, 42-second video, which was subtitled in Hebrew and Arabic.
Israeli media reported on Friday that the family of the dead captive, whose funeral was held in the occupied territories on Monday, okayed the release of the video, urging action to release other captives still held in Gaza.
“This must serve as an immediate wake-up call to the world to take action today to secure the release of the remaining 101 hostages before it is too late. No other family should go through what our family has endured,” The Jerusalem Post quoted Goldberg-Polin’s family as saying.
Thursday’s footage follows the recent videos published by Hamas on Telegram of Eden Yerushalmi, Alex Lobanov, and Carmel Gat, three of the six captives whose bodies were retrieved from Gaza last week. Hersh is the fourth captive video released of the six.
Later on Friday, Al-Qassam Brigades aired Almog Sarusi’s final message, another of the six dead prisoners whose bodies the Israeli army claimed to have found in a Gaza tunnel.
Source: Websites
