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Boston-area communities mourn killing of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin
“We are a collectively shattered community.”
Several communities in the Boston area are mourning the killing of American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the six Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered in Gaza over the weekend.
In Brookline, a makeshift memorial has grown under a portrait of Goldberg-Polin on Washington Street, where friends of the 23-year-old’s family live, WHDH reports. They put up his picture after he was kidnapped on Oct. 7 from the Nova music festival, where Hamas militants killed hundreds of civilians and took others hostage.
More than 100 people also gathered in Newton Center on Sunday to mourn Goldberg-Polin and the other slain hostages, The Boston Globe reports. Emily Brophy, who has organized weekly rallies in support of the hostages and their families, led attendees in reading out the names of the six, who Israel’s military says were killed in an underground tunnel on Thursday or Friday just before Israeli troops reached the area.
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“We are a collectively shattered community,” she said. “Many of us have never met these six hostages, but most of us feel like we have known them our whole lives.”
Goldberg-Polin’s aunt is a Newton resident, according to the Globe. He also helped integrate a group of New England students in Israel on a tour program in 2017, according to WHDH.
He was laid to rest on Monday in Jerusalem, where tens of thousands paid their respects, according to the Associated Press. His parents, Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, met with leaders including President Joe Biden since October and given addresses at the United Nations and Democratic National Convention, urging the release of all the hostages.
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Goldberg-Polin and two others of the six dead hostages were reportedly scheduled to be released in the first phase of a cease-fire deal proposed and discussed in July, according to the Associated Press.
Around 250 people were taken hostage when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 civilians. More than 100 of the hostages were freed in November during a cease-fire deal that saw the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel in exchange. Eight have been rescued, three who escaped were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces in December, and about 100 remain in Gaza. According to the Associated Press, a third of those who remain are believed to be dead.
Since Israel’s war on Hamas began, local health officials in Gaza say more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, with the majority of the territory’s population of 2.3 million people displaced by the violence.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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