Rachel Goldberg-Polin shared devastating details about her son Hersh’s captivity and murder at the hands of Hamas terrorists during a heart-wrenching address to diplomatic staff Thursday on Israel’s Independence Day.

Before his capture, Hersh was an adventurous 23-year-old Israeli-American with a passion for music and travel. When Hamas terrorists stormed the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, Hersh demonstrated remarkable courage, attempting to protect others by throwing grenades out of a shelter where festival-goers had hidden. His heroic action cost him his left arm below the elbow. Wounded and vulnerable, he was forcibly taken across the border into Gaza.

For six agonizing months, his family had no confirmation he was alive until Hamas released a video in April 2024 showing an emaciated Hersh with cropped hair, missing part of his left arm. In the brief footage, he spoke directly to his parents, telling them he had been there for “almost 200 days” and asking them to remain strong.

Hope flickered briefly this summer when Israeli officials revealed that Hersh, along with Eden Yerushalmi and Carmel Gat, was scheduled for release under the “humanitarian category” of a framework agreement reached in early July. But that hope was brutally extinguished on August 31st when Israeli forces recovered the bodies of Hersh and five other hostages from a tunnel beneath Rafah. According to Israeli authorities, all six had been executed at close range just 1-2 days earlier, mere moments before rescue forces could reach them.

Rachel’s description of their captivity was harrowing.

“The beautiful six, Eden, Ori, Elmog, Alex, Carmel, and Hersh, had been held in an airless pitch-black tunnel 20 meters underground. It was only a meter sixty in height and just 60 centimeters wide,” she revealed. “There was no electricity nor plumbing. All of them were emaciated. Hersh, who was 1.85 meters tall, weighed 53 kilograms. Delightful Eden was 1.60 meters tall. She weighed just 35 kilograms. They were all bullet-ridden and filthy, having not showered in months.”

Most devastating were the details of how her son was found.

“Hersh was shot in his only hand. His other hand had been blown off on October 7th during his abduction. He was shot in his shoulder, his neck, the side of his head below his ear, and in the back of his head,” she recounted. “He was found frozen on his knees with his face resting on the face of Eden, Eden, a girl named after Paradise. And since then, we have lived on another galaxy.”

May their memories be a blessing.