John, the father of the kidnapped Hirsch Goldberg-Polin, spoke this morning (Thursday) about his feelings following the release of the video of his son in Hamas captivity.
"He looks swollen, we don't know why. But he sounds strong. My wife and I sat just the two of us, watched the video and cried, not knowing he was alive. I've seen it already 20 times," Poland said in an interview with Kan.
According to him, "It seems to us that he was reading something someone wrote for him. But the part Iwant to focus on is the last part. Even if he read it - he spoke directly to me, to my wife Rachel and to our daughters Libi and Orli, and told us he missed us. We take it as the truth. Hearing him say that actually strengthened us on one hand, on the other hand we've been working for more than 200 days to get the captives back, and this is the moment - we must not stop".
"We heard about the video after it went up on Telegram, we watched it at the same time everyone else did. As parents, we know our children well, and we have reasons to worry about their health. We spoke with several entities, we know they also watched the video to understand what they can take from it. We are waiting for more information from the government," he added.
The last sign of life received from Hirsch's family was close to the events of the massacre on October 7, in a video where Hirsch was seen with an amputated arm. "It's a video no parent wants to see, but we dealt with the fact that he was standing on his feet, and lifting himself onto a stretcher. Since then I have told everyone: 'He was strong then and he continues to be strong'".