Mourners hold procession ahead of US-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin's funeral
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00:00Serious look, one of the hostages who was killed last week was Hirsch Goldberg-Pollin.
00:05He was an American-Israeli. His funeral is being held today in Jerusalem, where you are.
00:11And on Thursday of this week, there were really moving scenes when families of hostages, including
00:17his mother, Rachel Goldberg-Pollin, broke through the perimeter fence around Gaza and
00:24called out for their loved ones held hostage there. Let's just take a listen to a little
00:29of those scenes.
00:59And that is poignant footage, Iris, as I say, and partly because the story of that
01:12particular family, the Goldberg-Pollins, has resonated in Israel, but also far further
01:17afield because Hirsch was a dual Israeli-American national. His parents have spoken extensively,
01:23including at the DNC last month. As I say, the funeral is being held today. Just tell
01:29us a bit about that story and how it's resonating today in Israel.
01:34Well, it's certainly resonating because the funeral is almost like a state funeral. It's
01:39just been addressed by the president of the state of Israel at this funeral in Jerusalem.
01:44And he apologised to Hirsch and to his family. He said, we failed to protect you and we failed
01:50to rescue you. That's an apology they have not received from the prime minister of Israel,
01:55for example, and nor have any of the other hostages or their families or the people who
02:01were killed, the many hundreds of people who were killed on October the 7th. So I think
02:05it's significant for that reason. It's significant because Hirsch Goldberg-Pollin was 23 years
02:12old. He was injured on the day of the October the 7th when his arm was blown off. He was
02:20taken hostage. We then saw a hostage video of him without an arm calling on the state
02:26of Israel to rescue him. But I think it's really the personality of his mother that
02:31has made him this iconic figure. She's one of those women who appear ordinary until a
02:37crisis propels them into public consciousness. And she was so eloquent and so full of grace
02:43and didn't always sound as traumatised as she sounded and all the other parents sounded
02:49on that day at the Gaza border. She was a calm voice and a voice that resonated everywhere
02:56and you saw that she was not an ordinary woman at all. So their story, her son's story, the
03:02sad reality that he was basically executed on the day when she was calling out at that
03:09border to him, he was still alive. It's possible that he heard her and within 12 hours he was
03:15dead. And I think that's part of the grief. And that's why hundreds of people are attending
03:19this funeral, singing psalms in harmony, hoping, I guess hoping to pay their respects
03:26and to let the government know how much this story is an ongoing trauma in the state of
03:33Israel and won't be solved until the hostages, won't be resolved until the hostages are returned.
03:39Iris Mackler reporting for us there live from Jerusalem and the images we were just showing
03:43you there as Iris was speaking were of Rachel Goldberg Pullen who is speaking live now
03:49in Jerusalem during that funeral.