Matan Zangauker: My mom saved me; there are moments I don’t truly process that I’m home

In an interview with Channel 12 news, released hostage Matan Zangauker says: “My mom saved me. I am here thanks to my mom. She turned the world upside down. She truly turned the world upside down for her son, for me.”

Matan’s mother Einav was vocal and relentless in her campaign for the release of the hostages since October 7, 2023, leading weekly boisterous rallies demanding a deal to free the captives.

Zangauker, who was freed last month after two years in captivity, recounts that at one point a Hamas commander came into the tunnel in which he was held and said: “‘You’re Zangauker, right?’ I told him, ‘Yes, why?’ He said, ‘Your mother is protesting, she has shaken up the whole country.’ That made me very happy. It really strengthened me on a personal level. I thought, ‘My mother is fine; if she’s going out of the house and doing things, it’s better than sitting at home being depressed.’ So I was very glad to hear that, it helped me a lot.

“My mother has always been a lioness, always. She’s always conquered the world and succeeded. She got everything we needed, everything we wanted. She was always independent, always taking care of us — a real lioness.”

״אמא שלי הצילה אותי, בלב שלי אני יודע שאני כאן בזכות אמא שלי, עם ישראל והחיילים הגיבורים שלנו״.

מתן צנגאוקר, גיבור!!!! pic.twitter.com/ENAYxEDJBF

— הדר סגל Hadar Segal ???????? (@hadarse) November 10, 2025

Matan adds: “There are moments when I really can’t grasp that I’m here. Whether it’s while driving, or even just before going to sleep in bed. There are moments when I don’t truly process that I’m home. I pinch myself and wake up. I come back to reality.”