“It’s Mama,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin said calmly, speaking into the microphone to her son, Hersh. She was standing on a makeshift stage near the Gaza border on Thursday morning and speaking to her son, who had spent almost 330 days in Hamas captivity.
“Hersh, we are working day and night and we will never stop,” she said.
The tragic news that Israelis woke up to on Sunday, that the bodies of hostages Hersh, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Ori Danino were found in the Gaza Strip and brought back to Israel has once again underlined the situation this country finds itself in daily.
Praying for good news, fearing the worst. Hoping for some sort of deal to release the remaining hostages.
The IDF stated it had retrieved the bodies from a tunnel under Rafah, and that they were likely slaughtered by Hamas shortly before the IDF got to them.
There is a poignant and heartbreaking scene near the end of Schindler’s List when Oskar Schindler breaks down uncontrollably when he realizes how much money and time he wasted and how many more Jewish lives he could have saved.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized on Sunday in a conversation with the family of hostage Lobanov.
“I want to tell you how sorry I am and ask for forgiveness for not being able to bring Sasha back alive,” Netanyahu said. Perhaps as he spoke these words, in the back of his mind, he was also thinking, “I could have done more.”
As the man ultimately responsible for the hostages’ fate, one would hope so.
Unfortunately, it is too little, too late for our leader.
Israelis are responding differently to the news of the hostages’ deaths to previous situations. They could well wake up Monday to a country paralyzed – the airport is slated to shut down as are economic institutions, and protests have been called across the country. To put it bluntly, the death of six more hostages in captivity has pushed the public to say “enough is enough.”
The knowledge that this group could and should have been saved, especially given reports that Goldberg-Polin, Yerushalmi, and Gat were listed to be released as part of a July deal, has angered many.
We, as a society now, are forced to confront a profound and harrowing truth: six lives that we hoped to see returned home safely have instead been lost in the darkness of captivity.
To the hostages whose last moments were spent in fear and to their families who have endured unbearable uncertainty, we owe not just our deepest condolences but also an apology – a recognition that we, as a nation, could not do more to bring them back to safety. This is a wound that cuts deep, not just for the families but for all of us who believed in the possibility of their return.
Our politicians may offer weak, half-hearted apologies, but at The Jerusalem Post, we offer our most sincere, heartfelt apology possible.
We are sorry we could not do more to get you out. We are sorry that the words we have written for 10 months have failed to spur our politicians into action. We are sorry you will never again get to spend time with your families.
These were not just six individuals; they were part of our collective family, and their loss diminishes us all. We must carry the weight of this failure with us, allowing it to guide our actions in the future, ensuring that no family ever has to endure this kind of pain again. We owe it to them to remember their names, to honor their lives, and to learn from the silence that now fills the space they once occupied.
To their families, no words can heal the wounds left by this tragedy, but please know that their lives will not be forgotten. We will carry their memory forward, a solemn reminder of the price we pay when we fail to protect our own.
To Hersh, Eden, Carmel, Alexander, Almog, and Ori, we are so, so sorry.