‘Don’t give up on us’: Hostage’s mother appeals to Trump before Saturday night rallies
‘They’d been fighting for a thousand years’: US president reportedly expresses frustration at difficulties in reaching a ceasefire in Gaza
The mother of a hostage held by Hamas in Gaza issued an emotional appeal to US President Donald Trump, who is due in the region this week, not to “give up” on pushing Israel and the terror group toward a ceasefire.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker and one of the leaders of the movement calling for a hostage deal, made the comments ahead of the weekly mass protests calling for the hostages to be freed, to be held Saturday evening.
“You can’t sweep this under the rug or sugarcoat it. The recent deals, the latest hostages who returned to us — it all happened solely thanks to [Trump],” Zangauker said in an interview with the Walla news site.
“And I truly know that President Trump has a vision for the Middle East, that he’s not interested in wars, that he’s doing everything to reach agreements — whether it’s with Iran, or Russia and Ukraine — and here too, it matters to him to bring this to an end. But he doesn’t have a partner on our side,” said Zangauker, who has been a fierce critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government.
Her comments come as Trump is set to depart for Saudi Arabia on Monday before making stops in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He is slated to return on Friday, May 16. He has said Israel will not be on the itinerary.
“And if I could make just one distilled request: Don’t give up on us. Those who came back did so thanks to President Trump. And we need him to stay involved until the last hostage is brought home,” Zangauker said.
עינב צנגאוקר בראיון ב @WallaNews – "אם הייתי יכולה להגיד בקשה אחת מזוקקת לנשיא טראמפ. "Don't give up on us". מי שחזר חזר בזכות הנשיא טראמפ. ואנחנו חייבים שהוא יהיה מעורב עד שנחזיר את אחרון החטופים" pic.twitter.com/TPL4PaTCFl
— Tal Shalev (@talshalev1) May 10, 2025
However, recent signs have indicated that Trump is losing patience with Israel and is increasingly at odds with Netanyahu.
Trump expressed his frustration at his lack of impact recently in brokering a deal between Israel and Hamas, telling a group of top donors last week that finding a solution to the war in Gaza has been hard because “they’d been fighting for a thousand years,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
On the campaign trail, the US president boasted that he could bring the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine to a quick end, but has yet to do so after over 100 days in office.
On Ukraine, Trump told the donors that the war kept him up at night, and that dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin was a challenge because he “wanted the whole thing,” referring to all of Ukraine.
Thousands of demonstrators are expected to congregate across Israel on Saturday night to protest against the government and call for a deal to release hostages held by the terror group Hamas, as uncertainty grows about the fate of the remaining captives.
In Tel Aviv, the weekly anti-government rally will start at 7:00 p.m. at Habima Square.
The demonstration will feature Rafi Ben Shitrit, the former Beit She’an mayor, whose son Alroy was killed on October 7, 2023. Ben Shitrit’s participation is notable because of his past affiliation with Netanyahu’s Likud and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope.
Protest organizers said that after the rally ends, demonstrators will join demonstrations with hostage families at Hostages Square and Begin Road.
In Jerusalem, a demonstration will begin at 8:30 p.m. with a march from Zion Square to Paris Square, near the prime minister’s official residence.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces.
It is currently believed that 21 of the 59 hostages are alive. The status of three hostages — IDF soldier Tamir Nimordi, Bipin Joshi of Nepal, and Pinta Nattpong of Thailand —is considered highly questionable by Israeli officials because no signs of life have been received from them since the war broke out. No sign of life has been received either from Ariel Cunio, an Israeli civilian.
Amid the resurgent worry over the hostages’ status, Haaretz revealed Wednesday that in a military document outlining plans for a new Gaza offensive, the IDF had ranked the return of the hostages as its least important objective.
The document, presented to commanders on Tuesday, placed the Hamas-held captives in sixth and last place, a fact incongruent with army officials’ previous assertions to the Israeli public that the return of the hostages was the IDF’s most important war goal.
Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas and is counted among the 59 hostages.
The Times of Israel Community.