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Only 30-35 hostages still alive, says captive’s mother

Einav Zangauker rejects the prime minister’s claim that some 50 hostages are still among the living.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A mother of one of the 97 hostages still being held by Hamas rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that about 50 of the captives are still alive, in an interview on Army Radio Monday.

“The prime minister is lying,” Einav Zangauker said. “We know, the families, that the number is far smaller than the number cited by the prime minister.”

The relatives of the hostages receive intelligence updates from the army whenever they have new information on their loved ones’ status, she told the station, and therefore, “in my opinion, there are no more than 30 to 35 hostage still alive.”

In his report to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Sunday, Netanyahu had also cited intelligence as his source, saying, “According to the information we have, half of the hostages in Gaza are alive.”

Zangauker also expressed pessimism about any forthcoming deal.

“There are no [significant] contacts between the Israeli team and the mediators,” she said, and “Hamas is not involved.” The Americans, being busy with the upcoming elections, ahve basically “given up” their efforts for the time being as well, she added.

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Zangauker has repeatedly blamed the prime minister over the last several months for not consummating a ceasefire-for-hostages agreement, even though the Americans have backed Netanyahu’s claim that it is Hamas that has walked away from any deal.

In a Sunday statement, she accused Netanyahu and his government of “deliberately stalling the deal,” because the Israeli leader prefers “regional escalation” over the lives of the hostages.

She went as far as charging him with helping Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and wanting war so as to preserve his rule, “sacrific[ing] the abductees on that “altar.”

“Just as Netanyahu nurtured Hamas for years, so is Netanyahu now cooperating with Sinwar, and giving him what he wants: a multi-regional war. The hostages and all citizens of Israel are paying and will pay the price,” she added.

Zangauker has publicly stated that if her son is murdered in Gaza, “I won’t blame Hamas, just the prime minister.”

Her son, Matan, was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 along with his partner, Ilana Gritzewsky, and 249 other Israelis and foreign nationals during Hamas’ surprise invasion in which they and other terrorists also brutally massacred 1,200 people.

Gritzewsky was released in the only hostage deal to date, in late November, along with 85 other Israeli women and children, in exchange for a week-long ceasefire, the release of Palestinian female and underage security prisoners from Israeli jails, and a huge increase in humanitarian aid.