Hamas released a video Wednesday that appears to show one of its Israeli hostages giving a speech in captivity. In the video, a man identifies himself as Israeli-American. Hersh Goldberg-Polin before delivering a long statement clearly worded by Hamas, which has long been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel.
However, the video may give hope to the young man’s family, as the message it conveys includes a reference to his 200 days in captivity, suggesting that it was filmed on or to commemorate April 24, exactly 200 days since Hamas launched his attack. CBS News cannot verify the filming date or content of the video posted by Hamas’ Al-Qassam Armed Brigades, but it was posted on the same social media channel regularly used by the group to post propaganda videos, including others showing hostages.
There had been no clear indication from Hamas that Goldberg-Polin, now 24, was still alive. he he he was serious injured when militants raid music festival He was assisting near the Gaza border during the unprecedented Hamas attack in October. 7 terrorist attacks against Israel.
In the video, Goldberg-Polin shows that he is missing his left hand and that there are some visible marks on his head and face, but he speaks clearly in Hebrew and otherwise appears thin but healthy. The video includes English subtitles, which CBS News has verified as accurate.
The statement he delivers, clearly under duress in Hamas captivity, includes a litany of insults and admonitions to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to reach an agreement for the release of the remaining hostages.
There are believed to be around 100 people still detained in Gaza, out of the approximately 240 that Hamas initially took hostage.
It is unclear how many of the remaining hostages are still alive, but Goldberg-Polin says in the videotaped statement that Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed about 70 of the captives. Hamas has previously issued false statements about the fate of the hostages, accusing Israel of killing people who were later found alive.
The video was released the day after Jews celebrated the Passover holiday, and the Israeli-American man’s mother, Rachel Goldberg, was quoted Tuesday by the French news agency AFP as saying: “All the symbolic things we do in the seder will have a lot of meaning. deeper and deeper meaning this year.”
Goldberg he told CBS’ “Face the Nation” Presenter Margaret Brennan said earlier this month that her family was experiencing “a painful, astonishingly indescribable odyssey” as they waited for news of their son. They already knew that she had lost part of an arm in October. 7 attacked the Supernova music festival and had to apply his own tourniquet, according to witnesses.
Goldberg-Polin is one of eight Americans believed to still be detained in Gaza.
In the video, the young man says Netanyahu and his fellow Israeli leaders should be “ashamed” for continuing their mission in Gaza while he and his fellow captives are trapped “in an underground hell, without water, food or sun.”
Near the end of the statement, Goldberg-Polin addresses her own family directly, naming her parents and siblings and saying, “I love you. I know you are doing everything you can to get me home as soon as possible. I want you to stay strong. for me
Goldberg-Polin’s parents are among family members and loved ones of the hostages who have met repeatedly with Israeli leaders to pressure them to negotiate a new ceasefire and hostage release agreement with Hamas.
“I don’t know if the cabinet needed to have a flame burning underneath to get these hostages out,” his father Jonathan Polin told CBS News’ Chris Livesay in December. “But if they did it, it happens today.”
“If Hersh somehow, somewhere can hear this, know that we love you, stay strong, survive,” his mother pleaded in the CBS News interview, adding, “We’re coming. The world is coming.”