An Israeli-American family that became an international icon in the struggle to free hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza laid their son to rest on Monday after he was said to have been killed by militants as soldiers were approaching the spot where he was being held.
Thousands of people thronged a Jerusalem cemetery to pay their respects to Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose face became one of the most recognizable symbols of the nearly year-old hostage crisis.
Mourners massed around the car as the family of the 23-year-old man left their home in Jerusalem, and crowds, many hoisting Israeli flags or dressed in the colors of Goldberg-Polin’s favorite soccer team, lined a major thoroughfare in Jerusalem as the car headed to the cemetery. Mourners laid wreaths at the foot of his coffin and sang a prayer.
Many in the crowd erupted in sobs as his mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, said goodbye to her son and told him, “Finally, finally, finally you are free!”
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
She and her husband Jon shared stories of their son, who they said was funny, curious and relentless in the pursuit of justice. They said they hoped his death might at least be a turning point in drawn-out negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release.
“We failed you, we all failed you. You would not have failed you,” Jon said. “Maybe your death is the stone, the fuel, that will bring home the 101 other hostages.”
“Sorry Hersh, sorry we couldn’t bring you back alive,” Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said in a eulogy.
Israel’s military announced Sunday that the bodies of Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages had been discovered in an underground tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip.
His U.S.-born parents, Jon and Rachel, became two of the most high-profile relatives of hostages on the international stage. During their desperate fight to free their son, they met with U.S. President Joe Biden, Pope Francis and others. They also addressed the United Nations and the Democratic National Convention, urging the release of all hostages.
The native of Berkeley was attending a music festival when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage.
Goldberg-Polin lost part of his left arm to a grenade blast during the attack, which sparked a devastating war that has stretched nearly 11 months. In April, a Hamas-issued video, filmed under duress, showed him with his left hand missing, sparking new protests in Israel urging the government to do more to secure his and others’ freedom.
Israeli forensics experts say the six hostages were killed by close-range gunfire, on Thursday or Friday, shortly before Israeli troops reached the tunnel in southern Gaza where they were being held. Their deaths sparked mass protests in Israel, with many saying the hostages could have been returned alive if a cease-fire deal had been reached.
Three of the six hostages found dead — including Goldberg-Polin — were reportedly scheduled to be released in the first phase of a cease-fire proposal discussed in July.
Since then, negotiations have failed to reach a deal. Hamas accuses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of dragging out talks by issuing new demands, including for lasting Israeli control over two strategic corridors in Gaza. Hamas has demanded an end to the war, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants.
Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the deaths of the six, saying “whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal.”
Their deaths fueled fury and frustration among Israelis, who held massive protests in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv since the news broke.
Protesters blocked Tel Aviv’s main highway in the middle of the day on Monday, and Israel’s largest trade union, the Histadrut, held a general strike for Monday, the first since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, to pressure the government for a deal.
Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin became symbols in Israel and around the world, campaigning for their son’s freedom. Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s daily ritual, wearing a piece of masking tape inscribed with the number of days her son had been imprisoned, was widely adopted by other families of hostages and supporters at protests across Israel, as the number of days climbed higher and higher.
On Monday, Rachel Goldberg-Polin said the past 330 days had been “such torment that closed my throat and made my soul burn with third-degree burns.”
“I no longer need to worry about you, you are no longer in danger,” she said. “You fought to stay alive and now you are gone.”
On Monday night, about 300 members of the Bay Area Jewish Community gathered in San Francisco to mourn the deaths of six Israeli hostages and to demand that there be no more killings.
“And as long as our people know, we are one family, and one community. No one will ever take us down,” said Rabbi Shimon Margolin with Russian Speaking Jewish Community of San Francisco
Some speakers at the San Francisco event called the execution of the six Israeli hostages -a war crime. But with pictures posted everywhere of the remaining 101 hostages still held by Hamas, most speakers focused on hope for their safe return.
“These are difficult days for all of us. As Israelis, as Jews, as human beings,” said Israeli Consulate Deputy Consul General Maya Avishai.
NBC Bay Area's Terry McSweeney contributed to the report.
