 "Demonstrators march during a protest in Tel Aviv calling for action to secure the release of Israeli hostages on September 2. Image- AFP")
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday sought forgiveness for failing to save six hostages whose bodies were recovered from a Gaza tunnel at the weekend.
“I ask for your forgiveness for not bringing them back alive,” Netanyahu said at a televised press conference. “We were close but we didn’t succeed. Hamas will pay a very heavy price for this.”
Goldberg-Polin’s body, along with the bodies of fellow hostages Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino, were recovered by Israeli troops on Sunday, triggering an outpouring of grief and rage among Israelis traumatized by one of the most devastating attacks in their country’s history.
“I feel he was like a symbol of the hostages,” Amnon Sadovsky, a 70-year-old teacher told Reuters. “We need to have humanity for all people - for Jews and for Arabs.”
Goldberg-Polin, 23, who immigrated to Israel from California at the age of seven, was at the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct 7, celebrating his birthday when Hamas-led militants launched their onslaught, killing 1200 people and taking 253 hostages.
Footage shot during the onslaught showed several Hamas terrorists surrounding the roadside bomb shelter where he was hiding, and throwing grenades through the doorway. Most of those hiding inside were killed, while Hersh lost the lower part of his left arm.
Video showed him being loaded with other hostages onto a pickup van, his injury clearly visible.
He was last seen alive in a Hamas video released in April, addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then his family, giving the first public sign that he had survived his injuries.
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More ShortsIn a picturesque Jerusalem neighbourhood close to where his family lived, red and white banners bearing his image - a smiling young man with an open shirt and a small beard - dot the streets and hang from balconies, with the message “Free Hersh”.
The death of the six, after nearly 11 months in captivity, sparked a wave of protests, with around 500,000 people taking to the streets in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Sunday night that continued into Monday with a general strike to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring the hostages home.
Earlier today, Israel’s president on Monday apologised on behalf of the government for failing to protect a 23-year-old US-Israeli hostage whose funeral drew thousands to a Jerusalem cemetery.
“I apologise on behalf of the State of Israel, that we failed to protect you in the terrible disaster of October 7, that we failed to bring you home safely,” Isaac Herzog said during the service, referring to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel in which Hersh Goldberg-Polin was taken hostage.
“I apologise that the country you immigrated to at the age of 7, wrapped in the Israeli flag, could not keep you safe.”
Directly addressing Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Herzog said: “I want to say how sorry I am. How sorry I am that we didn’t protect Hersh on that dark day.”
Israeli authorities on Sunday announced the death of Goldberg-Polin along with that of five other hostages seized on October 7.
With inputs from agencies.