09/02/2024September 2, 2024
Funeral of Israeli-American hostage takes place in Jerusalem
Thousands of people gathered on Monday to lay Hersh Goldberg-Polin to rest in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul cemetery. The 23-year-old Israeli-American was one of over the weekend.
At one intersection, dozens of locals paid their respects by lining the road with pictures and Israeli flags as the family drove to the funeral.
Reports in Israel say the hostages were killed just days before being recovered by the Israeli military on Saturday.
At the funeral, some carried flags of Hapoel Jerusalem, Hersh’s favorite football team, and many of his friends from Brigade Malcha, Hapoel’s ultra group, made their way to the cemetery to pay their respects.
Goldberg-Polin was abducted on October 7 while attending the Nova music festival in southern Israel. He was among 250 hostages taken by the militant group Hamas. Roughly 100 hostages remain in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Noam Marhum, who described himself as part of the Hapoel family, told DW that he came to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv for the funeral.
“It’s not the end he deserved, he was young and deserved to live so much more,” Marhum said.
“I am angry at Hamas, angry at our government,” he added.
“After 11 months, I think there is no other solution. We need to bring them back alive. And I hope that the pressure that we can put on now will bring the last ones that are alive back to their families, because they don’t deserve this,” said Marhum.
“We thought we had a chance to save him, and it breaks our hearts. He was a big part of us,” he added.
The government’s failure to bring the prisoners home alive in a cease-fire deal that would have included the release of the remaining hostages has sparked .
“That also hung over the funeral, although for most here, it was a day of mourning, not politics,” said DW’s Jerusalem correspondent Tania Kraemer.
The post Middle East: Funeral held for slain US-Israeli hostage appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
