A Bay Area-born man is missing after an electronic music festival in Israel was struck in a bloody Hamas attack this weekend. Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, attended the festival and sent his family chilling text messages, including “I love you” and “I’m sorry,” on Saturday before he stopped responding, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. Goldberg-Polin, who was born in Berkeley, left his house in Israel on Friday night around 11 p.m. for the festival, the outlet reported.
After the heart-wrenching attack, Golberg-Polin’s family told the Jerusalem Post they are hoping he is found alive. “We just want him home and safe,” his father, Jonathan Polin, told the outlet. On Monday, Israel increased airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and sealed it off from food, fuel, and other supplies in retaliation for a bloody incursion by Hamas militants, as the war’s death toll rose to nearly 1,600 on both sides.