Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, parents of Hersh Goldberg Polin, an American-Israeli citizen whose video was released by Hamas yesterday, made a statement during today's press conference: "Hostage families do not need any reminders of what we are fighting for in this struggle. Each family is thinking 24 hours a day seven days a week about our loved ones in captivity." "We received a video yesterday of Hersh, saw him and heard him for the first time in 201 days, and while we didn't need any reminder, we really hope that seeing him and hearing his voice serves as a very stark reminder to all of the negotiators that you are negotiating over the lives of real people, human beings with loved ones, with aspirations and we need to work to bring home all 133 of these hostages immediately." Related articles: 'Calling for hostage release is about human life, not politics' US presented Hamas with new proposal for hostage release The chilling story of Omer Wenkert from captivity 'I had to fight every moment to survive and to not lose hope' "Another milestone that happened today is that 17 of the 25 countries that have citizens who are being held hostage in Gaza signed a joint statement demanding their immediate release. We are hopeful and prayerful that this is the beginning of a galvanizing force of these countries who are going to continue going forward and shout in a loud unified way that they are not stopping until all of these hostages come home." Hamas captivity survivor Gabriella Leimberg made a statement as well: "I am Gabriela Leimberg, an Argentine citizen. I have been living in Israel for 26 years. I was kidnapped on October 7th by the terrorist organization Hamas." "Today, I want to thank the Argentinian government, which is one of 18 countries that issued a statement calling for the immediate release of the 133 hostages. I am grateful to the countries of the world for the pressure and assistance they have provided." "I request the immediate release of all hostages." "And again, I thank the Argentinian government and appreciate that, together with other countries around the world, they are pushing for our release until the last hostage returns home safely."
