Mother of Hostage Warns Netanyahu Son’s Health at Risk in Gaza Captivity

In a deeply personal and urgent plea, Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, delivered a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his criminal trial on Monday, warning that her son's life may be in danger due to the conditions of his captivity in Gaza.

Matan, who has been held by Hamas for 542 days, is genetically predisposed to a form of muscular dystrophy that can be triggered by extreme stress. In her letter, Einav said the fear, trauma, and physical conditions her son is enduring in Hamas tunnels could activate the disease, potentially leading to full disability or worse.

“The illness may break out in situations of anxiety, stress, and fear,” she wrote. “If this has already happened or happens because of your deliberate abandonment of Matan, I will never forgive you for it.”

She accused Netanyahu of refusing to meet with her privately despite numerous requests and warned that current hostage deal proposals could leave Matan isolated underground, particularly if his current cellmate is released without him.

“You know a great deal about Matan’s conditions in captivity,” she wrote. “You are well aware of his legs being bound in iron chains heavier than his own body weight. You are well aware of the deliberate starvation and of the physical and psychological abuse Matan has endured day after day since October 7.”

Einav compared the phased hostage release negotiations to a “selektzia,” using the Holocaust term for Nazi sorting of Jews for labor or death. She accused the government of playing politics with lives and warned that any selective deal would be a death sentence for her son.

She called for an end to the war, which she labeled “pointless,” asserting that the only non-negotiable demand from Hamas is the war’s cessation. “Time has run out for them,” she said of the hostages. “It’s clear to everyone that those who are still alive and left behind will not survive.”

Despite government statements emphasizing the return of all captives, she warned that “the likelihood is growing that the hereditary family illness will erupt all at once as a result of the loneliness and the already deteriorated mental and physical state that is expected to get worse.”

Zangauker concluded her letter by demanding that no Israeli soldiers risk their lives in rescue operations, calling instead for a political deal to bring all 59 remaining hostages home safely.

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