Earlier this month we brought you the story of an American hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin. He was one of many in attendance at the Tribe of Nova music festival in southern Israel on October 7 when Hamas attacked. His parents received two short messages from him that morning. One read “I love you”; the other, “I’m sorry.”
His mother came out and she wrote an article saying she knew his arm had been shot and hoped that there was a mother in Gaza who would take care of her son. She said, “I think I would take care of someone else’s son.” It’s absolutely heartbreaking.
Hersh has not been heard or seen since. Anderson Cooper sat down with Hersh’s parents last week, where they shared what few details they had of Hersh, including that story of their son’s arm being blown off by a grenade terrorists threw into a shelter or he and other festival goers are hiding for their lives.
After hearing their story, Cooper discovered that he may have seen footage of their son through an Israeli soldier. After the interview, his parents were able to confirm that that tape was of their son Hersh. In the video, which is disturbing, you can see Hersh moments after his arm is blown off. He and several other wounded hostages are dragged and forced into the bed of a truck by Hamas terrorists shouting “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.” They are barbarians.
In the interview with Cooper, Hersh’s parents, John and Rachel, said they have no proof of life from their son. He spoke of the pain of waiting, of not knowing, but still sending messages to their son:
Cooper: How are you able to get through each day?
Rachel: I personally feel like we have to keep running to the end of the earth to save him. And we have to try to go believing that somehow he got treatment and he’s there. He’s in pain and suffering, but he’s alive and he’s there. And there are also the moments in this universe that we now live where you say, ‘Maybe he died on the truck; maybe he bled out in that truck; maybe he died yesterday; maybe he died five minutes ago’… We have a porch that’s facing south, and I went out Friday night and I was like screaming to him and hoping. Because, you know, Friday night we bless our children traditionally… and so I was screaming the blessing to him with my hands up. I usually put my hands on his head when he’s home.
Cooper: What does the blessing say?
Rachel: It says, ‘May God bless you and keep you. May God’s face shine upon you.’
Absolutely unimaginable. It’s so, so heartbreaking and hard to talk about. The other day, I was like, ‘I can’t take any more of this. I cannot take any more Twitter feeds with just such horrific violence casually fed to me as I’m scrolling.’ Even on our show, doing a deep dive in and out of the story is too overwhelming. But we have to.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 656 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.