Hamas released a video Wednesday appearing to show one of its Israeli hostages delivering an address in captivity. In the video, a man identifies himself as Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin before delivering a long statement clearly crafted by Hamas, which has long been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel.
The video may give the young man’s family hope, however, as the message he conveys includes a reference to his 200 days in captivity – which suggests it was either filmed on or to mark April 24, exactly 200 days since Hamas launched its attack. CBS News cannot verify the date of filming or the contents of the video released by Hamas’ armed Al-Qassam Brigades, but it was posted on the same social media channel used regularly by the group to publish propaganda videos, including others showing hostages.
There had been no clear indication from Hamas that Goldberg-Polin, now 24, was still alive. He was seriously injured when militants rampaged through the music festival he was attending near the Gaza border during Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
In the video, Goldberg-Polin shows that he is missing his left hand, and there are some marks visible on his head and face, but he speaks clearly in Hebrew and appears otherwise thin but healthy. The video includes English subtitles, which CBS News has verified as accurate.
The statement he delivers, clearly under duress in Hamas captivity, includes a litany of insults and admonishments for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to secure a deal for the remaining hostages’ release.
There are believed to be about 100 people still held in Gaza, of the roughly 240 initially taken hostage by Hamas.
It is not clear how many of the remaining hostages are still alive, but Goldberg-Polin says in the videotaped statement that Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have killed about 70 of the captives. Hamas has previously issued false statements about the hostages’ fate, accusing Israel of killing people who were later found alive.
The video was released the day after Jews marked the Passover holiday, and the Israeli-American man’s mother Rachel Goldberg was quoted Tuesday by the French news agency AFP as saying, “all of the symbolic things we do at the seder will take on a much more profound and deep meaning this year.”
Goldberg told CBS’ “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan earlier this month that her family was living through “a painful, staggeringly indescribable odyssey” as they waited for news of her son. They knew already that he’d lost part of an arm in the Oct. 7 attack on the Supernova music festival, and had to apply his own tourniquet, according to witnesses.
Goldberg-Polin is one of eight Americans still believed to be held in Gaza.
In the video, the young man says Netanyahu and his fellow Israeli leaders should be “ashamed” for carrying on with their mission in Gaza while he and his fellow captives are stuck “in underground hell, without water, food or sun.”
Near the end of the statement, Goldberg-Polin addresses his own family directly, naming his parents and siblings and saying: “I love you. I know you’re doing your best to get me home as soon as possible. I want you to stay strong for me
Goldberg-Polin’s parents are among the relatives and loved ones of hostages who have met with Israeli leaders repeatedly to push them to negotiate a new cease-fire and hostage release deal with Hamas.
“I don’t know that the cabinet needed to have a flame lit under them to get these hostages out,” his father Jonathan Polin told CBS News’ Chris Livesay in December. “But if they did, it happens today.”
“If Hersh somehow, somewhere can hear this — just know we love you, stay strong, survive,” his mother pleaded in the interview with CBS News, adding: “We’re coming. The world is coming.”