Jon and Rachel, parents of executed hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, spoke about their feelings upon seeing Or Levy, who was captured with their son, released alive.
''We received the wonderful news that Eli, Or, and Ohad were released today. We felt this real connection to Or and his family because Or and Hersh were both captured together from the same bomb shelter, on the same pickup truck, on October 7th,'' they began.
''Or's brother Mikel contacted us right after Shabbat today to tell us that one of Or's first questions he asked his brother was 'How is Hersh doing?', because he had assumed that Hersh had been released long ago. His brother had to explain to Or that Hersh had been murdered five months ago.''
''We saw the condition of these three. That Or had no idea what happened to Hersh, and that Eli was unaware of the fate of his wife and his daughters, is just a gut punch to all of us. We need to do more,'' they declared.
They ended with an appeal to the American administration. ''President Trump, Mr. Witkoff, you have shown that you are the only ones who have been able to get this situation moving. Our plea to you right now is now that you've done the hard part of getting a deal started. Let's think bigger and faster - all 76 hostages out this week, and the end of the war. Who benefits from dragging it out for so long? Not the people of this region. Let's get it done, right now.''