The Islamist organization Hamas has published a new video of one of the Israeli hostages still in Loop, Matan Zangaukeras part of his ideological pressure strategy shortly after ensuring that international mediators had resumed ceasefire negotiations in the Strip.
“I’m paying the price for your mistakes,” says Zangauker in a video in which he constantly pressures for Israel reach an agreement to release them, dated on day 420 of the war, when this Saturday marks 428 days of conflict in the enclave.
In the video, the young man, whose mother is Eivan Zangauker, one of the most visible figures in the protests in front of Netanyahu’s house to demand an agreement to free the hostages, calls precisely Israelis to maintain these types of protests. In this sense, he speaks directly to his mother, ensuring that he is aware of her activities.
“Demonstrate in front of the prime minister’s house and do not let him sleep for a minute” until the hostages can safely reach their homes. “We are suffering, it is more appropriate for him and his family to suffer like us,” says the captive in the video.
In a shadow, but appearing healthy, Zangauker denounces the living conditions in Gaza, marked by the lack of food, hygiene products, and drinking water, which humanitarian organizations have been denouncing throughout the conflict.
The recording, from more than a week ago, comes to light when everything points to a new round of negotiations for the truce in Gaza, after confirming the return of Taste as a mediator after having abandoned this role. So far, Israel has not announced the sending of a negotiating delegation to Egypt, although security sources in this country predicted its arrival in the next week.
“The Government has rejected us”
The Islamist group periodically publishes this type of videos as an element of pressure on Israel. In this case, Zangauker says he is “paying the price” for his country’s mistakes: “The Government has rejected us and continues to reject us every day,” complaint. “I hope you do what you can to change the situation and rescue me along with the rest of the prisoners alive and healthy,” he says in another appeal to the population, common in this type of recordings.
In September, the young man’s mother said she was aware that he was held with 10 other hostagesaccording to the information he had received, although his situation has not been updated again for the public.
This same Saturday, Hamas began a count of the living Israeli hostages in Gaza, as revealed by Palestinian sources, while the population of the enclave assures that Israeli surveillance drones they stopped flying over their skies in the morningas happened during the November truce of last year in which 105 were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
This same source assures that senior Hamas officials had contacted various factions in the Gaza Strip, to learn about the latest developments related to the living prisoners, in preparation for the possibility of reach an exchange agreement as soon as possible, with serious progress in indirect negotiations with the Israeli occupation.
Of the 251 kidnapped by Gazan militiamen on October 7 of last year, 96 are still in the enclavewhile Israeli authorities estimate that at least 34 are dead.