Hamas publishes video of executed American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin

The video of Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s final message departs slightly from previous videos of executed hostages, as he pleads with Joe Biden to pressure Benjamin Netanyahu into a ceasefire deal.

Hamas has released the last message of American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Picture: Telegram.

Hamas has published another video of an executed hostage as the militant group continues its attempts to use psychological warfare to pressure the Netanyahu government into a ceasefire deal.

The video of American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s final message follows the template of previous messages pushed out by Hamas this week, as he describes the difficulties of living in captivity where he says he can’t remember the last time he saw the sun or breathed fresh air.

In a departure from the previous messages, however, he addresses President Joe Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging them to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree a ceasefire deal.

Mr Goldberg-Polin was one of six hostages whose bodies were found in a tunnel under Gaza last weekend after they had been shot multiple times at close range. Earlier this week he was also seen in a compilation video of the hostages, berating Mr Netanyahu for abandoning the captives.

In another cruel twist aimed at grieving families of the murdered hostages, Hamas this morning also published a video of the captives’ funerals, o the soundtrack of the song: ‘I’m coming home.’

They added a picture of Benjamin Netanyahu holding a bodybag, with the words: “Bodies in black bags, that’s how we’ll return your kids.”

Hamas published a picture of Benjamin Netanyahu holding a body bag. Picture: Telegram.

The group has called on Washington to “exert real pressure” on Israel to reach a Gaza ceasefire agreement as Mr Netanyahu said there was still no deal in the making.

The two sides have traded blame over stalling talks for a ceasefire and hostage exchange as Mr Netanyahu faces pressure both from home and abroad to seal a deal that would free remaining captives.

“If the US administration and its President (Joe) Biden really want to reach a ceasefire and complete a prisoner exchange deal, they must abandon their blind bias towards the Zionist occupation,” Hamas’s Qatar-based lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said, calling on the US to “exert real pressure on Netanyahu and his government”.

But Mr Netanyahu told US talk show Fox & Friends: “There is not a deal in the making … Unfortunately, it’s not close but we will do everything we can to get them to the point where they do make a deal and at the same time we prevent Iran from resupplying Gaza as this great terror enclave.”

Mr Netanyahu insists that Israel must retain control over the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border to prevent weapons smuggling to Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel started the war.

Hamas is demanding complete Israeli withdrawal from the area and on Thursday said Mr Netanyahu’s position “aims to thwart reaching an agreement”.

The Palestinian militant group says a new deal is unnecessary because they agreed months ago to a truce outlined by Mr Biden.

“We do not need new proposals,” Hamas said in a statement.

“We warn against falling into the trap of Netanyahu … who uses negotiations to prolong the aggression against our people,” the group said.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby nonetheless said that Washington believes a ceasefire deal is 90 per cent agreed.

But he added that “nothing is negotiated until everything is negotiated, and the things that are still in play right now are very, very detailed … issues, and that’s when things get difficult.”

At Israeli protests in several cities this week, Netanyahu’s critics have blamed him for hostages’ deaths, saying he has refused to make necessary concessions for striking a ceasefire deal.

“We’ll do everything so that all hostages will be with us. And if the leaders don’t want to sign a deal, we’ll make them,” said Gil Dickmann, cousin of Carmel Gat, one of the six hostages whose bodies were found in a Gaza tunnel last week.

Dickmann took part in an anti-government rally at Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, where crowds of demonstrators carried symbolic coffins in a procession, an AFP journalist reported.

Key mediator Qatar has said that Israel’s approach was “based on an attempt to falsify facts and mislead world public opinion by repeating lies”.

Such moves “will ultimately lead to the demise of peace efforts”, Qatar’s foreign ministry warned.

With AFP