Hamas releases video of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker urging hostage deal

Gaza Strip - The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, released a video on Saturday of an Israeli hostage held in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack of October 2023.

Freed Israeli former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky (seated L) joins relatives and supporters holding placards bearing portraits of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker in Tel Aviv on January 20, 2023.
Freed Israeli former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky (seated L) joins relatives and supporters holding placards bearing portraits of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker in Tel Aviv on January 20, 2023.  © AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP

In the undated three-and-half-minute video, Matan Zangauker says in Hebrew that he has been in captivity for more than 420 days and calls for public pressure on the Israeli government to secure the release of all captives held in Gaza.

Zangauker, who was 24 at the time, was taken from Nir Oz kibbutz along with his partner Ilana Gritzewsky.

Gritzewsky was released during a truce last year.

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Matan's mother Einav Zangauker has been one of the most prominent figures in Israel calling for the government to negotiate a hostage release deal that would end the war.

Addressing herself to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she said, "That Matan is still alive today does not mean he will survive the winter or the continuing military pressure. The only way to bring Matan back is with a ceasefire."

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group for relatives of those abducted to Gaza, said the video was evidence that hostages remained alive and that "the critical need" to secure their release "becomes more urgent with each passing hour."

"These hostages' lives hang by a thread," the group said.

Critics have accused Netanyahu of stalling truce negotiations and prolonging the war to appease his far-right coalition partners.

Israelis protest the war in Gaza as hostage deals flounder

Einav holds a sign identifying her son Matan Zangauker, one of the hostages taken captive by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip during the October 7 attacks, as she stands on the roof of a car during a demonstration by hostages' relatives and supporters in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on May 6, 2024.
Einav holds a sign identifying her son Matan Zangauker, one of the hostages taken captive by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip during the October 7 attacks, as she stands on the roof of a car during a demonstration by hostages' relatives and supporters in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on May 6, 2024.  © JACK GUEZ / AFP

There have been large and frequent protests in Israel since the early days of the war calling for the government to negotiate a hostage release deal with Hamas.

Palestinian militants kidnapped 251 people during their surprise attack, of whom 96 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

On Saturday, Qatar said "momentum is coming back" for the talks, while a source close to the Hamas delegation told AFP that a new round of negotiations will "most likely" begin in the coming week.

Doha has been mediating negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal alongside the US and Egypt without success for more than a year.

Cover photo: AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP

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