‘We Love You. Stay Strong. Survive’: Family, Friends Anxiously Await News of Hostages Held by Hamas

During the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, Hamas terrorists also took around 240 hostages – men, women, and children, including elderly and disabled people. So far, the terror group has only released four.

Recently at the United Nations, Rachel Goldberg continued her quest to bring her son home. 

“My name is Rachel, and I am the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin. He’s my eldest child, and my only son,” she said. 

Hamas terrorists abducted the 23-year-old U.S.-Israeli citizen at the music festival in southern Israel, where so many others were murdered.

Hersh crowded into a roadside bomb shelter along with more than two dozen others as the terrorists attacked.

“Hamas militants came to the doorway and began throwing in hand grenades,” Goldberg shared at the UN. “Next, Hamas fired into this small concrete room of 29 music lovers, a RPG, and then sprayed the room with machine gun fire.”

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Severely wounded, Hersh survived and can be seen in a video Goldberg obtained.

“All the witnesses we spoke to said they saw that Hersh’s left arm from the elbow down had been blown off and that he had fashioned some sort of bandage or tourniquet of some sort because they saw that,” she told CBN News. “And the young men walked out, and they were loaded onto a pickup truck.”

Hamas captured Hersh and more than 200 others. Family and friends anxiously await news about their loved ones, hoping they’re still alive. 

In a nationally televised address, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, “The abductees are in the forefront of our mind, and their return is an integral part of winning the campaign.”

A special forces operation rescued one hostage, a female Israeli soldier, and Hamas has released four others.

Israelis lined up in Tel Aviv holding photos of those forcibly taken to Gaza, demanding they be set free. 

“We’re calling to the world to declare that the Red Cross be able to visit them, that we know a sign of life from all of these innocent people who were kidnapped on Oct. 7, and that they be freed in an exchange,” Lisa Preiss Fried, a protestor, explained.

“I’m standing with this sign of Ivan that I don’t know of, I don’t recognize him, but I feel connected to him and hope he is well,” said Avi Laiser, another protestor.

Goldberg desperately hopes her son is alive.

“I have this mantra that from the beginning I’ve been saying to Hersh, that I constantly am saying, ‘We love you. Stay strong. Survive. We love you. Stay strong. Survive,’” she shared.

“And sometimes, I just do this, ‘Stay strong. Survive. Stay strong. Survive.’ And I realize that it’s actually me that I’m saying it to, and not just him,” Goldberg continued.

She talks about finding great strength and support when people from all over the world reach out and say, “We are with you, and we are praying for you.”