'We all failed you.' Heartbreak at funeral for Israeli-American hostage in Jerusalem

An Israeli-American family that became an international icon in the struggle to free hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza laid their son to rest on Monday after he was said to have been killed by militants as soldiers were approaching the spot where he was being held.

Thousands of people thronged a Jerusalem cemetery to pay their respects to Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose face became one of the most recognizable symbols of the nearly-year-old hostage crisis.

Mourners massed around the car as the family of the 23-year-old man left their home in Jerusalem, and crowds, many hoisting Israeli flags or dressed in the colors of Goldberg-Polin's favorite soccer team, lined a major thoroughfare in Jerusalem as the car headed to the cemetery. Mourners laid wreaths at the foot of his coffin and sang a prayer.

Many in the crowd erupted in sobs as his mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, said goodbye to her son and told him, “Finally, finally, finally you are free!”

She and her husband Jon shared stories of their son, who they said was funny, curious and relentless in the pursuit of justice. They said they hoped his death might at least be a turning point in drawn-out negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release

“We failed you, we all failed you. You would not have failed you,” Jon said. “Maybe your death is the stone, the fuel, that will bring home the 101 other hostages.”

“Sorry Hersh, sorry we couldn’t bring you back alive,” Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said in a eulogy.

Israel’s military announced Sunday that the bodies of Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages had been discovered in an underground tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip.

His U.S.-born parents, Jon and Rachel, became two of the most high-profile relatives of