Hamas released a video on Saturday night of 25-year-old Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Palestinian terror group’s massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
While the three-plus minute clip is not dated, Zangauker states that he has been held captive in the Gaza Strip for over 420 days, suggesting it was filmed recently.
“The fact that Matan is alive does not mean he will survive the winter or the ongoing [IDF] military campaign. The only way to bring Matan and everyone home is through a deal,” Einav Zangauker, Matan’s mother, said in a statement after the video was published.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Einav Zangauker on Saturday, saying he “fully understands the severe suffering that Matan and all the hostages and their families are experiencing.”
Israel is “working to exploit every opportunity that arises to advance the [ceasefire] negotiations” and “will continue to work resolutely and in every way to return Matan and all the kidnapped—both living and dead—home,” said Netanyahu, according to a statement released by his office.
The previous Saturday, Hamas released a proof-of-life video of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, 20, which Netanyahu described as “cruel psychological warfare.”
Sean Savett, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said that the video, which also runs about three-and-a-half minutes, was “a cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own.”
The war against Hamas in Gaza “would stop tomorrow and the suffering of Gazans would end immediately—and would have ended months ago—if Hamas agreed to release the hostages,” he stated.
Last week, Israeli security forces retrieved the remains of slain hostage Itai Svirsky from Gaza. Svirsky, 38, a Tel Aviv resident with dual German-Israeli citizenship, was visiting his elderly parents at Kibbutz Be’eri for Shabbat and the Simchat Torah holiday on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian terrorists launched the cross-border assault. Both of his parents were murdered by Hamas.
On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that military pressure on Hamas had prompted the Iranian-backed terror group to consider a deal.
“There is a chance that this time we will really be able to advance a hostage deal,” Katz said during a visit to an air force base.
A day earlier, Netanyahu praised U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for his “strong statement” calling on Hamas to unconditionally release the hostages.
“It is a forceful statement, which makes it clear that there is only one responsible for this situation, and that is Hamas,” Netanyahu stated. “President Trump put the emphasis in the correct place, on Hamas, and not on the Israeli government as is customary in some places,” he added.
In his Monday statement, Trump vowed that there will be consequences if Hamas does not release the hostages before his Jan. 20 inauguration.
“If the hostages are not released prior to Jan. 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume office as president of the United States, there will be all hell to pay in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the United States of America,” he added.