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The mother of an Israeli-American hostage being held in Gaza said Sunday that the United States has a stake in bringing about a deal that will lead to a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and the release of the Oct. 7 hostages.
“I think what really gets lost in this is that America should not be considered sort of this neutral, you know, negotiator,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin said on “Fox News Sunday.” “America was also a victim on October 7th. Forty-five Americans were killed on October 7th. Twelve were taken into captivity and eight are still being held hostage.”
Goldberg-Polin is the mother of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was abducted from a music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. In April, Hamas released a hostage video of her son, who was born in Berkeley, California.
The exact number is not 100 percent clear, but in addition to approximately 1,200 Israelis being killed by Hamas that day, more than 230 people were known to have been abducted from southern Israel. While some were released in prisoner exchanges (and at least three killed by friendly fire from Israeli forces), many hostages — Goldberg-Polin said 132 — are still known to be in Gaza.
“I think that not most Americans even are aware that there are American innocent civilians being held against their will,” she told host Benjamin Hall, adding that the group includes a range of nationalities and religions.
“There’s a lot of people in that hostage cohort that we don’t hear about when we hear a lot of noise about the hostages being held,” Goldberg-Polin said. “You very rarely hear about the Muslim Arabs who are hostage. You very rarely hear about the Thai Buddhists who are held hostage. You very rarely hear about the Black Christian Africans who are being held hostage. There’s Nepalese. There are Mexicans. There are Argentinians. There are Germans. And somehow there has been an attempt to make this group of people a monolithic, homogenous group.”
The Oct. 7 attack led to an attack on Gaza by Israel that continues to this day and which has claimed an estimated 35,000 lives, including thousands of children. Recent ceasefire talks have failed to yield a deal, and Israel has ramped up an offensive in the densely populated city of Rafah, which is believed to be Hamas’ last stronghold.
Goldberg-Polin said she wasn’t sure could be done to stop the fighting.
“I think that we really have to be creative and insightful,” she said, “and figure out a way forward. Both sides really have to figure out a way forward and calling for a timeout certainly will give some time for people to start to think straight again.”
She added about the war: “There’s so much suffering to go around — I mean, there is no competition here. There are hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza who are suffering, and there are also 132 innocent civilians in Gaza who were dragged there on October 7th who are suffering. I think people have trouble holding those two truths.”
