(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Former Chicago residents now living in Israel shared their story about their missing 23-year-old son today during a news conference in Tel Aviv.
Rachel Goldberg, now living in Jerusalem, said her son, Hirsch, was camping with a friend at a music festival.
"I normally don't use my phone on the Jewish Sabbath, but it was an emergency and I needed to know where my son was," she said.
"When I turned it on there were two texts in a row from Hirsch at 8:11. This first said 'I love you,' and the second, also at 8:11, said "I'm sorry."
She later learned that her son was with others in a bomb shelter at the festival. He was wounded.
She said, "they were fish in a barrel sitting in this bomb shelter."
His father Jonathan Polin said he was told that his son and his friend saved people's lives.
"As grenades were being thrown in they were tossing them back out. They were trying to comfort people."
They said their son's arm was severed at the elbow. He made a tourniquet with a shirt. He was taken away by Hamas along with others in a pick-up truck.
Meanwhile back in Illinois , Governor J.B. Pritzker attended a Jewish United Fund Israel Solidarity gathering Tuesday in Glencoe. He said that "prayers are called for, but they're not nearly enough."
Pritzker also said while there are many peace-loving Palestinians, Hamas is a murderous terrorist organization and that Illinois and the U.S. stand with Israel.
Prtizker said there's no local threat, but police are on alert.
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