The 23-year-old was celebrating his release from his Army service
A 23-year-old American-Israeli man is missing after Hamas attacked a music festival in Israel. Hamas group stormed the music festival in the south of Israel and opened fire as part of the huge surprise attack on Israel. Hersh Golberg-Polin was attending the music festival to celebrate his birthday and has not been heard from since Saturday morning.
He texted his parents “I love you” and “I’m sorry,” before becoming unreachable, his father told The Jerusalem Post.
“We just want him home and safe,” his father, Jonathon Polin told the outlet, adding that if he could tell his son anything, he would say, “We love you. Come home to us.”
This is Hersh Golberg-Polin, a 23-year-old American-Israeli who was at the desert music festival attacked by Hamas.
His parents are anxiously searching for him. On Saturday morning they received 2 short messages from their son saying: “I love you” and “I’m sorry.” They haven’t… pic.twitter.com/5OAZSU0ULD
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) October 8, 2023
According to the New York Post, the 23-year-old was celebrating his release from his Army service, which he finished at the end of April. Mr Polin drove tanks in the 7th Armored Brigade and later trained to become a medic.
The man worked both as a medic and a waiter and he was trying to save money to visit India as it had been a long-time dream of his, his father told The Jerusalem Post.
Earlier, shocking footage of a 25-year-old woman being kidnapped from a peace festival by Hamas fighters has surfaced on the internet. The distressing video shows Noa Argamani pleading for her life while sitting on the back of a fighter’s motorcycle.
Thousands of young people attended the Nature Party, near Kibbutz Re’im close to Gaza, which became one of the first targets of Palestinian gunmen who crossed into Israel early on Saturday in the biggest attack on the country in decades.
As rocket fire exploded around, panicked partygoers tried to escape in any way they could.
At least 700 Israelis were killed and dozens more were abducted into Gaza in scenes that have left a profound shock on a country which had long prided itself on its ultra-efficient military and security services, Reuters reported.
At the Nature Party alone, Israeli media said emergency services collected 260 bodies.