The mother of an Israeli-American man held in Gaza told the BBC that Israel and Hamas urgently need to agree a new ceasefire and a new agreement on the release of hostages.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s son Hersh, who turned 23 four days before he was abducted from the Nova festival on Oct. 7, was seen in captivity in a new video released last week.
She described how she felt when she saw it for the first time.
“As soon as I heard his voice, I started crying because I hadn’t heard his voice in half a year.
“Seeing him move and seeing he is clearly medically compromised and fragile. His dad Jon and I both just cried and I held my heart.”
“I don’t even know what I said. I just made noises and cried, and Jon cried.”
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was at the Nova music festival in a forested area near the Gaza Strip when Hamas-led gunmen stormed Israel’s border fence, killing about 1,200 people and taking 253 hostage, according to Israel.
More than 360 of those killed took part in the festival event.
Hersh ran several miles and sought refuge in a roadside bomb shelter with several dozen others during the attack, but gunmen gathered outside and began throwing grenades.
The last time he was seen alive before Wednesday was in a Hamas video that showed him being loaded onto a pickup truck with part of his left arm missing.
In the new video posted to Hamas’s Telegram account, Hersh raises his arm toward the camera to show a healed stump where his hand should be. He criticizes the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip before addressing his parents and two sisters directly and urging them to continue to campaign for his release.
“We are obviously very concerned about the injury,” Ms. Goldberg-Polin told me.
“We had several surgeons who saw the video and said he needed another operation immediately. If he was treated, it was emergency treatment. He needs at least a second operation.”
“He is considered to be in a fragile and compromised state of health and that is why we are concerned about that.”
As a 23-year-old man, Hersh is not expected to be included in the next group of hostages whose release is being discussed, which also includes women and the elderly.
But those with health problems also fall into the release category, and so the family hopes he will be accepted – although they have no confirmation of this.
Ms. Goldberg-Polin says she has scheduled a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his recent visit to Israel, which it is hoped will add further momentum to negotiations.
She had a clear message to everyone involved.
“I think everyone here has an influence. Everyone uses their influence. But are they using it to its maximum? The answer is clearly no. Because we still have 133 people there in Gaza.”
“I am hopeful and optimistic. I really pray that all parties, everyone decides to be brave and courageous and put an end to all the suffering in this region.”
Hamas is expected to respond to the latest Israeli proposal in the next 24 hours. The hope is that it can provide a basis for negotiating a concrete agreement and not be rejected outright.
The details have yet to be officially confirmed, but are believed to involve the release of 33 hostages during a five- to six-week ceasefire. An undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli prisons. It is also understood there is a commitment to discuss a future end point for the war.
But even as these discussions continue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is planning a ground offensive in Rafah regardless of the outcome. Around 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are seeking refuge there after fleeing their homes during heavy fighting in the northern and central parts of the Gaza Strip.
More than 34,500 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. Israel is conducting a military campaign to destroy Hamas and free the hostages.
A deal agreed in November called for the release of 105 hostages – most of them women and children – by Hamas in return for a week-long ceasefire and about 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.