Video of hostage with Chicago ties brings mix of emotion: Parents

go overseas and the new video released by Hamas of an Israeli American hostage who was severely injured in the October 7th tax's parents are now responding and will'll join us live in just a few moments but first let's go to our foreign correspondent Tom supi Burge in Jerusalem good morning Tom good morning Robin yeah HH Goldberg pollen who was born in California seen for the first time in captivity in Gaza the 23-year-old speaking under Jess into camera in a Hamas video saying he's being held in quote hell underground Shalom goldber po this morning more than 200 days after the world saw American Israeli hostage HH Goldberg pollen with his arm badly injured put in the back of a pickup truck and taken into Gaza the First Clear Proof he survived that deadly attack H sitting upright appearing under Jess with a shaven head and missing part of his left arm blown off on October 7th when terrorists threw grenades into a shelter when he was trying to evade capture H addressing the camera in Hebrew saying mom dad liby and oie I love you very much I miss you very much and I think of you every day that I'm here I need you to stay strong for me and not stop fighting hirs also demanding the Israeli government do everything in its power to set him free his parents wanting the world to watch that video we're relieved to see him alive but we are also concerned about his health and wellbeing as well as that of all of the other hostages and all of those suffering in this region pers if you can hear this we heard your voice today for the first time in 2011 days and if you can hear us I am telling you we are telling you we love you stay strong survive the video of H spurring his supporters onto the streets protesters clashing with police overnight is ready prime minister netanyahu's residence well protesters out on the streets tonight in Jerusalem they're blocking the road you can see the police are trying to drive them back these people want a deal to set the hostages free it's thought around a 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza H one of five Americans and guys right now those hostage and ceasefire negotiations appear to have stalled and in fact the Israeli military has made Advanced preparations to try and move hundreds of thousands of civilians out of in southern Gaza with the Israeli government approving a ground offensive on what it says is hamas's last stronghold there in the coming weeks George okay Tom thanks very much want to hear now from hs's parents John PA and his father is joining us right now and John I I know it must be very hard to summarize but tell us what you're thinking and feeling as you saw that video for the first time sure Good morning George uh total mix of emotions first and foremost just huge sense of relief and gratitude to both see him and hear him something about that multisensory was really uh overwhelming um he's alive assuming this video is current which we believe it is he's alive um the flip side of that is we as parents know our son better than anybody and we see a level of distress we see some things that concern us about his health not only obviously his arm that we knew was blown off uh and so us we've already been fighting for 202 days at this point for his release and the release of all the hostages it's fueled us even more we need everybody involved in these negotiations to lean in get this done get these people home what else did you see that gave you signals about his health H is really thin he's always been really thin he's one of those kids who has tried to gain weight and struggled I know a lot of people in the world wish they had that problem uh and looked kind of puffy in the video there was like a swelling that concerned us around his face his neck his shoulders we don't know we don't know if that's true what it might be from but uh it causes us a little bit of a concern we've talked to a few doctors who have said that it could perhaps be a form of Edema uh could be a form of low protein diet um but uh you know there are some things that we see that cause concern and like I said further fuel us to get her and the 132 other herses each of whom has families fighting for them we got to get them home Rachel Goldberg hersh's mom is joining us as as as well Rachel we just heard John talk about his reaction to the video what was yours I mean it was extremely emotional uh lots of tears to be honest I wasn't even listening to the content I was just hearing my only son's voice and seeing him moved and trying to look into his eyes and anyone any parent and anyone who has parents um can imagine after 2011 days more than half a year of doubt and fear and angst and Trauma to have that it was very Bittersweet um and it was truly overwhelming I I can imagine had you had any Assurance before you saw the video that he was indeed alive well we have been told by our um intelligence officer who's been with us since the beginning that the families where it is known that their loved one Is tragically not alive have been contacted and also the families where there's a high suspicion that their loved one is not alive has been contacted and so she is always saying to us every day that we have no news is good news so the working assumption was please hopefully you know let's be optimistic that he's alive but this obviously was uh was much different than sort of a working assumption John what else can you tell us about your contacts with the American and the Israeli government so we continue to say that the American government the Biden Administration Congress people from both sides the aisle have been incredibly supportive of us and of all of The Americans who are held there are currently eight Americans still being held we get updates from the administration their doors are open to us every few weeks we're either there in meetings in person or on Zoom um so the support has been really really uh remarkable um the Israelis are um deeper into things obviously our updates tend to be a little bit more tactical um I don't need to say that it is such a complex situation but it feels like so many people in the region on all sides are just tired tired of the trauma that we've all been under since the 7th of October and hopefully at this point we can get all the parties to really just go in a room lock themselves in there and not come out until we have a deal to release our 133 hostages and to reduce the pressure all over the region we all we all share that Hope finally Rachel what is your message to hirs and all of our viewers well to her every single day many times a day I'm always saying to him we love you stay strong survive we love you stay strong survive and I definitely you know more than ever after seeing him and seeing that he is clearly medically compromised medically fragile that is my continued plea to him to his soul to hear me and to people who are watching this to remember that there are 133 perses every single person there has a family has a life has dreams has aspirations and when we think of them as one number or one monolithic group we do them in disservice these are people from 25 different nations there are Christians Jews Muslims Hindus Buddhists and it's an age range the youngest is now a year and a half old which is tragic that kir bias has spent so much of his childhood in captivity and the oldest is an 86-year-old grandfather we must remember these people they are human beings and we must get them out no matter what it takes no matter who you are this could be your son this could be your grandfather this could be your daughter your sister your spouse and it's time those are very powerful words we love you stay strong and survive thank you for joining us this morning morning

Channel: ABC 7 Chicago

Views: 3,873

Keywords: rachel goldberg polin, israeli hostage video, hostage video hamas today, hamas video, hamas hostage video, gaza hostage, gaza

Id: HSmKgWrjAo4

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024