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Families of U.S. citizens taken hostage by Hamas speak out
Four U.S. families who have missing relatives in Israel are calling on President Joe Biden to help locate and free their family members.
TEL AVIV - American families pleaded for answers Tuesday in the case of their missing relatives in Israel.
Four families gathered this morning to share their stories, including one family that once lived in Chicago.
They lost their son, Hersch Polin-Goldberg, during the chaos of the Hamas attack last Saturday. Speaking at a news conference at the Carlton hotel in Tel Aviv, his father, Jon Polin, said his son and friends fled to a bomb shelter when the "masked gunman attacked."
And then he and best friend helped save lives, his father said, by throwing grenades back out of the shelter.
"As grenades were being thrown in, they were tossing them back out," Polin said, adding that they were told of his son's actions by other eyewitnesses.
His parents said that he was injured in the bomb shelter when Hamas militants came in with grenades and machine guns.
"We know his arm was severed from the elbow-down, blown off," his mother, Rachel Goldberg, said. "They were fish in a barrel."
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg said they believe their child was taken hostage by Hamas.
"When I turned [my phone] on, there were two texts in a row from Hersch at 8:11. The first one said ‘I love you’ and immediately at 8:11 also, it said ‘I’m sorry.' So, I knew immediately, wherever he was, it was a terrible situation. I took it to mean ‘I love you and I’m sorry because whatever is about to happen is going to cause you a tremendous pain and worry."
The family moved out to Jerusalem in 2008 and have been living there ever since.
KTVU contributed to this report.