The mother of an Israeli-American man being held in Gaza has told the BBC that Israel and Hamas must urgently agree a new ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s son Hersh, who turned 23 four days before he was kidnapped from the Nova festival on 7 October, was seen in captivity in a new video released last week.

She described how she felt when she first watched it.

“As soon as I heard his voice I started to cry, because I haven’t heard his voice in half a year.

“To see him moving, and to see that he is clearly medically compromised, and that he’s fragile. His father Jon and I were both just crying, and I was holding my heart.”

“I don’t even know what I was saying. I was just making noises and crying, and Jon was crying”.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin was at the Nova music festival in a forested area close to the Gaza Strip when Hamas-led gunmen stormed Israel’s border fence, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

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