Boston-area communities mourn killing of American-Israeli hostage

Local news

“We are a collectively broken community.”

Many Boston-area communities are mourning the killing of Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of six Israeli hostages whose bodies were found in the Gaza Strip over the weekend.

In Brookline, a makeshift memorial has sprung up under Goldberg-Polin’s portrait on Washington Street, where family friends of the 23-year-old live, WHDH reported. They put up his photo after he was kidnapped Oct. 7 from the Nova music festival, where Hamas militants killed hundreds of civilians and took others hostage.

More than 100 people gathered at the Newton Center on Sunday to mourn Goldberg-Polin and the other murdered hostages, Boston Globe reports. Emily Brophy, who organizes weekly rallies in support of the hostages and their families, led participants in reading out the names of the six who the Israeli military said were killed in an underground tunnel on Thursday or Friday, just before Israeli forces arrived in the area.

“We are collectively a broken community,” she said. “Many of us have never met these six hostages, but most of us feel like we have known them our whole lives.”

Goldberg-Polin’s aunt is reportedly a resident of Newton GlobeHe also helped integrate a group of New England students into Israel on a 2017 trip, according to WHDH.

He was buried Monday in Jerusalem, where tens of thousands of people paid their respects, according to the Associated Press. His parents, Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, have met with leaders including President Joe Biden since October and given speeches at the United Nations and Democratic National Conventions, calling for the release of all hostages.

According to an Associated Press report, Goldberg-Polin and two others among the six dead hostages were to be released under the first phase of a ceasefire agreement proposed and discussed in July.

About 250 people were taken hostage when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 civilians. More than 100 hostages were freed in November during a ceasefire agreement that in return freed Palestinians trapped in Israel. Eight people were rescued, three who escaped were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces in December, and about 100 are still in Gaza. A third of the rest are believed to be dead, according to the Associated Press.

Local health officials in the Gaza Strip say more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas, and most of the territory’s 2.3 million population has been displaced by the violence.

This report uses information from the Associated Press.