Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is a hostage in Gaza, passed a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday during a break in a hearing at his ongoing criminal trial, chastising him for his refusal to meet with her and decrying his failure to free the remaining hostages.
Zangauker, in the letter, told the premier she was writing to him because “you consistently and systematically refuse to meet with me in private, despite numerous official requests, as is customary in your dealings with all the families of the hostages.”
“The deal being negotiated is a selection deal,” she said, using a Holocaust-era term used to describe Germany’s distinction between Jews deemed fit for hard labor and those sent straight to the slaughter.
“I ask you to take care of getting Matan out of hell, and I demand that the prime minister bring a comprehensive agreement that will provide a solution for all 59 hostages, living and dead, and to ensure an end to the war, because we know that this is the only condition that Hamas is not willing to bend on,” she said.
“This is an unnecessary war, no more hostages must pay for this with their lives. If my Matan managed to survive to this day, I demand that the prime minister bring him and everyone else home. And not risk a single hair on a soldier’s head in an attempt to rescue hostages,” she added.
The letter was taken by Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad.
Matan Zangauker, who was abducted from his Nir Oz home on October 7, 2023, during Hamas’s attack on Israel, has been held captive in Gaza for 542 days.
He was kidnapped alongside his partner, Ilana Gritzewsky, who was released on November 30, 2023, during a weeklong ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States. Gritzewsky said in an interview this week that she was sexually assaulted during her abduction to Gaza by Hamas terrorists.
Einav Zangauker has emerged as a prominent leader in the protests to secure the release of all those held by terrorists in Gaza and is an outspoken critic of Netanyahu and his government.
Last week, she made a rare direct appeal to her son’s 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 said in the clip, which she published on Thursday.
Speaking in Hebrew and Arabic, Zangauker also requested that the Gazans holding her son 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 asking for proof of life, she also turned 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.”
She also appealed to US President Donald Trump in the context of his declared anti-war agenda, saying 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.”
Zangauker concluded the video by addressing her son, hoping he would 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 Zangauker is one of 59 hostages that remain in captivity and one of 24 that Israel believes is alive.
All are young men abducted on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
The latest ceasefire, which began in January, collapsed this month, with Israel renewing intensive military operations throughout Gaza.
Despite the resumption of fighting, efforts to renew the truce are ongoing, with mediating countries scrambling to push Israel and Hamas to the negotiating table.
On Saturday, Israel confirmed that it had received a new ceasefire-hostage release proposal from mediating countries and said it had made a counteroffer.
The Israeli statement came after media reports on Saturday said Hamas had agreed to an Egyptian proposal to release five living hostages in exchange for a 50-day ceasefire in Gaza.
According to multiple media reports, this does not meet Jerusalem’s demands, with Israel insisting on the return of 10 or 11 living hostages to resume the truce, based on a previous proposal by US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
While Hamas has already rebuffed Witkoff’s proposal to extend the truce, a senior official in the terror group said Friday that the negotiations were gaining momentum and that there is “hope that the coming days will bring a real breakthrough… following intensified communications with and between mediators in recent days.”