(NewsNation) — Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg are doing everything they can to get their 23-year-old son Hersh out of the hands of Hamas militants, and the couple says they are “making progress” in getting answers and pushing for solutions from U.S. and Israeli government officials.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin is among the roughly 200 people who are believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas during an incursion into Israel that killed more than 1,300 others. Goldberg-Polin was last seen Oct. 7, when he was loaded onto a pickup truck with other hostages taken from a music festival where at least 260 people were killed.
Since then, his parents, who moved from Virginia to Israel more than a decade ago, have organized a “Bring Hersh Home” campaign on social media.
“It’s hard to know, but it feels like we’re making some progress. We’ve gotten amazing support from the U.S. government, from the administration, Congress, we’ve had conversations or meetings with Secretary of State Blinken, President Biden, a number of U.S. senators,” Jon Polin said in a video update aired Monday on “CUOMO.” “We’re making progress building support among key U.S. officials.”
Witnesses at the music festival say Goldberg-Polin lost part of his arm to an explosive, leaving his mother to worry about his health conditions in captivity. It’s possible the hostages are being held in an expansive network of tunnels underground in Gaza.
His parents are calling on the public to pressure Israeli and Egyptian officials to open up a humanitarian corridor to allow in food, water and medical resources.
“There’s only so long a person can live without getting medical treatment,” Polin said. “We need people around the world who care about liberty and freedom and fairness to stand up and scream for the 40 countries who have hostages being held in Gaza — we need your leaders screaming that humanitarian aid and medical workers must be allowed in to treat the sick hostages.”
There was some movement on that front Monday night. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the U.S. and Israel had agreed to develop a plan to enable humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza. There were few details, but the plan would include “the possibility of creating areas to help keep civilians out of harm’s way.”
President Joe Biden will also visit Israel and Jordan on Wednesday to meet with both Israeli and Arab leadership as concerns mount that the conflict could spread.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
