US President Joe Biden announced that Israeli forces had recovered the remains of six hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, in a tunnel beneath Rafah in Gaza.
The president confirmed that Goldberg-Polin, who was 23 years old, was an American citizen.
He was one of 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during an October 7th attack in southern Israel, and approximately 100 hostages are still being held, many of whom are presumed dead by the Israeli military.
Goldberg-Polin had been kidnapped from the Supernova music festival and was remembered during a speech by his parents at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago the previous month.
His parents also participated in a rally for hostages near the Gaza border on Thursday.
During the rally, his mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, expressed her love and encouragement to him through a microphone.
On the day of his abduction, he had sought refuge in a bomb shelter, which was subsequently stormed by gunmen with grenades.
A Hamas-released video from that day depicted him being forced onto a pickup truck, severely injured, with his left arm partially amputated from the attack.
A later video released by Hamas on April 24 showed him stating that the hostages were enduring terrible conditions. The initial attack by Hamas on October 7 killed 1,199, mostly civilians, based on official Israeli data and AFP reports.
In response, Israeli military actions have resulted in at least 40,691 deaths in Gaza, predominantly women and children, as reported by Gaza’s health ministry and the UN rights office.
