In hostage-style video, Einav Zangauker asks Hamas for signs of life from all captives
Speaking Hebrew and Arabic, protest leader Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan has been held in Gaza for 538 days, asks captors to keep him safe, urges Trump’s intervention
Stav Levaton is a military reporter for The Times of Israel
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held hostage in Gaza, made a rare direct appeal to his captors in a video styled on Hamas’s own propaganda clips, asking them for signs of life from all the remaining living hostages in Gaza.
“I ask that you film them,” Zangauker, who has emerged as a leading critic of the government’s handling of the hostage crisis, says in the clip, which she published on Thursday. Israel believes 24 of the 59 hostages still held in Gaza are alive.
Speaking in Hebrew and Arabic, Zangauker also requests that the Gazans holding her son Matan Zangauker show him the video, which was shot in a similar style to a Hamas propaganda video of him published in December, the only sign of life from him to date since his abduction on October 7, 2023.
Beyond proof of life, she also turns to “the commanders of the [Hamas] Qassam Brigade in Khan Younis and our sons’ guards,” requesting that they “keep them safe until the implementation of a ceasefire.”
Matan, who was abducted from his Nir Oz home on October 7, 2023, as part of Hamas’s attack on Israel, has been held captive in Gaza for 538 days.
He was kidnapped alongside his partner, Ilana Gritzewsky, who was released on November 30, 2023, as part of a weeklong ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States between Hamas and Israel. Gritzewsky said in an interview this week that she was sexually assaulted during her abduction to Gaza by Hamas terrorists.
עינב צנגאוקר, אימו של מתן, במסר לשובים של מתן ולנשיא טראמפ:
אני עינב, אמא של מתן צנגאוקר.
אנחנו, כמו הבנים שלנו, גם מרגישות בשבי החמאס, כבר מעל 500 ימים. הפחד והבדידות הורגים אותם והורגים גם אותנו. האם הבנים שלנו גם יזכו לחזור הביתה? אל תשכחו אותם, אל תשכחו אותנו.אני פונה אל… pic.twitter.com/doihiRLpLp
— כולנו חטופים (@Kulanu_Hatufim) March 27, 2025
“We, like our sons, also feel like we are captives of Hamas, for over 500 days,” Zangauker says in the video.
She also appealed to US President Donald Trump in the context of his declared anti-war agenda, stating in Hebrew, “Please do everything in your power [to release the hostages],” adding that the Israeli government must ensure the return of all the remaining hostages, “otherwise the war will not end.”
Since her son’s abduction, Einav, a previous supporter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has become a leading voice for the release of the hostages and a vociferous critic of Netanyahu and his government.
Addressing her son at a protest in Tel Aviv in November, Einav called out Netanyahu’s far-right coalition allies, who were seeking to block a hostage deal that included a ceasefire in Gaza. “I won’t let anyone deprive me of your embrace — not the prime minister, not [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir, and not [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich,” she said. A hostage-ceasefire deal was indeed signed in January, and 33 Israeli hostages were freed, but the phased agreement collapsed earlier this month.
Currently, there are still 59 hostages in the Gaza Strip out of the 251 taken on October 7, 35 of whom have been confirmed dead by the IDF.
The resumption of fighting in Gaza triggered a wave of mass protests throughout Israel, with reports of over 100,000 Israelis demonstrating nationwide last Saturday.
Einav concludes the video by addressing her son, hoping he will see her message: “My Matan, mother is on her way… We are fighting every day to bring you back. Hold on, you will get out of there and back to us. We are all fighting for you.”
Matan and Einav spoke on the morning of October 7. When the sirens first went off early that day, he reassured her, saying they were safe in their bedroom, which also served as a shelter.
As the situation worsened in the kibbutz, Zangauker wrote to his mother that the terrorists were in their house.
“Everything will be okay, my prince,” wrote his mother.
Then Matan wrote, “I love you, don’t cry.”
And finally, “Here. Here. Here.”
The Times of Israel Community.