Hostage’s mother to PM: Free all the hostages, in one batch, now

Einav Zangauker hails the release of the six hostages today and says the hearts of all the hostage families are with the families of slain hostages Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz.

But addressing a Tel Aviv protest, Zangauker, whose son Matan is held hostage, notes that 63 hostages are still “in hell in Gaza.”

She highlights the joy in Israel at today’s releases and says: “It must not be that the deal is stopped and that we return to fighting.”

Zangauker notes an ostensible Hamas proposal to release the rest of the hostages in one go and says the Americans want all the hostages back at once and so does most of the Israeli public. “One batch, right away,” she urges.

She denounces what she says is a “disconnected government” that is instead preparing for a return to the war. She charges that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who she says created the entire phased process, is “dragging his feet… trying to please his extremist coalition partners at the price of the blood of Matan and the rest of the hostages.

“Hostages first… All of them now,” she urges Netanyahu. It can’t be that Trump and envoy Steve Witkoff want this more than the prime minister, she says. “Netanyahu, these are your citizens, abandoned on your watch.”