Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, who is currently being held by Hamas, sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his conduct in the ongoing hostage deal negotiations during a Monday video address.
“If Matan is abandoned to die alone in the tunnel, let all of Israel know that the prime minister deliberately decided to impose a death sentence on a citizen who was kidnapped from his home in his pajamas, only out of personal vengeance against his family,” Zangauker stated.
She stressed that the prime minister is “well aware of Matan’s medical condition and the conditions under which he is being held.”
“He [Matan] is shackled with heavy chains, unable to even stand in the low tunnel where he is kept. He is going through the Holocaust,” she said.
Zangauker stated that her son has been held in recent months by the terror group in the same tunnel as American citizen and soldier Edan Alexander.
She stressed that “his condition has worsened” while being held in captivity since the October 7 Hamas attacks in 2023.
“According to medical information I have, my son Matan was kidnapped while he was seriously ill with a high probability of suffering from a degenerative muscle disease that affects most of our family members. Due to the harsh conditions of captivity and the stress he is under, we know his condition has worsened.”
Netanyahu is “once again cooking up a partial selection deal instead of ending the war and bringing everyone back,” she said.
Protesting for the hostage return
Zangauker also spoke up for her son at a demonstration in front of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer’s house in Jerusalem’s Liberty Bell Park on Sunday night, speaking about the conditions her son has endured in captivity.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched along Jerusalem’s Emek Refaim Street toward Dermer’s house, with Zangauker and other family members of hostages still seen in the crowd.
Dermer was appointed in February to lead the negotiations for the Israeli delegation in the second phase of the hostage release deal.
Protest organizers said that they’ve brought the demonstration to Dermer because “he won’t meet the families, so the families came to him.”