President Joe Biden responded to the news that Hersh Goldberg-Polin was one of the bodies that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had discovered in Gaza, and stated “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes.”
Biden issued a statement that it was “now confirmed that one of the hostages” killed by Hamas terrorists was Goldberg-Polin. Biden described Goldberg-Polin’s death as “tragic” and “reprehensible.”
“Earlier today, in a tunnel under the city of Rafah, Israeli forces recovered six bodies of hostages held by Hamas,” Biden said in a statement. “We have now confirmed that one of the hostages killed by these vicious Hamas terrorists was an American citizen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin.”
Biden added that he was “devasted and outraged.”
“Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on October 7,” Biden added. “He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre. He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world. I have gotten to know his parents, Jon and Rachel. They have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable. They have been relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages held in unconscionable conditions. I admire them and grieve with them more deeply than words can express.”
“I know all Americans tonight will have them in their prayers, just as Jill and I will,” Biden continued. “I have worked tirelessly to bring their beloved Hersh safely to them and am heartbroken by the news of his death. It is as tragic as it is reprehensible. Make no mistake. Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”
As Breitbart News previously reported:
Israel’s Army Radio announced Sunday morning local time that Goldberg-Polin had been identified as one of the dead. The immediate cause of death had not been identified. Army Radio also announced that the family of Israeli hostage Orio Danino, 25, who had been abducted after saving people from the music festival, had also been identified as one of the dead. So, too, had Eden Yerushalmi, 24, an Israeli woman who had spoken with her family before being abducted.
Hersh was one of the more than 250 people who were taken hostage after Hamas terrorists launched a land, sea, and air invasion of Israel, leaving 1,200 people murdered.
Goldberg-Polin and other people who had been attending the Supernova festival sought shelter in a roadside rocket shelter. While they were inside, Hamas terrorists were throwing grenades into the shelter, which resulted in the loss of Goldberg-Polin’s left arm from the elbow down.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin and her husband Jon Polin recently spoke at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago and spoke about how it was “not a political issue” to call for the hostages to be released.
Goldberg-Polin was last seen in a video in April released by Hamas as an attempt to put pressure on the Israeli government to agree to an unfavorable hostage deal.
