Mother of hostage not set to be freed in next few weeks: PM must get everybody back, today

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held hostage and is not set to be freed in the current, 42-day phase one of the deal, tells Channel 12: “I don’t think there’s a drop of blood in my body that isn’t boiling with rage” after watching the release of the three hostages today.

She notes that her son was abducted on the same day as the “beloved hostages” who were freed today. And seeing their condition, “I dread to think about how he will return to me, if at all.”

She says she and other families of hostages have been in the US in the past few days pleading with US President Donald Trump and his officials on behalf of Israeli hostages and that this is a surreal situation.

“The US administration is totally committed to the return of all the hostages, to the very last one.” Yet Prime Minister Netanyahu, she says, “continues to play political games at the expense” of those hostages who have not been released.

“A great deal of pressure” is being exerted by the US leadership on Netanyahu to complete the entire deal, “but to my sorrow the prime minister is being politically extorted” by his far-right coalition partners.

“How is it possible not to continue to phase two” of the deal?” Zangauker wails, and asks why the talks on phase two are not being expedited.

The prime minister has just vowed “to take steps” after seeing the condition of today’s three freed hostages, she notes. “The only step that needs to be taken is for the prime minister to phone the head of the Mossad” and the other Israeli negotiators, and “order them to immediately start phase two. There is no time. We are in a holocaust reality and we cannot allow it to go on.

“The people must take to the streets. The state needs to stop today… All of the hostages must be saved. My son is enduring a holocaust. Today’s survivors looked like they’d emerged from concentration camps… The prime minister must end the war and get everybody back, today,” she pleads.