Recently freed hostage Edan Alexander has confirmed that fellow captive Matan Zangauker is alive but in “severe distress” in the latter’s first proof of life since December, according to his relatives.
Alexander, who was released from Hamas captivity after 583 days, told the family that those who remain in Gaza are “living in hell”.
Confirming that Zangauker is one of the estimated 20 hostages still living, his mother Einav said: “Since I learned about the torture and the physical and mental suffering my son is enduring, I haven’t been able to eat, and I can barely breathe. How can a mother survive knowing her son, who suffers from a degenerative muscle disease, is being held alone in captivity?
"I don’t know if he can survive much longer.”
The family revealed that, according to Alexander, Zangauker is in “severe mental distress” and, as a result, is refusing to eat or even speak.
He is also reportedly suffering from tremors due his hereditary health condition and was subjected to “emergency medical intervention” after developing severe abdominal pain.
His mother, who has been at the forefront of the hostage campaign since the October 7, 2023 massacres, once again lashed out at the Israeli government over the lack of a hostage deal securing her son’s return.
She went on: “While they are living in hell, the Israeli government is bombing the area where Matan is being held.
"The prime minister can no longer say he didn’t know or hadn’t heard. Continued military pressure and the isolation Matan is experiencing will lead to his death.
"The Israeli government must end the war and put a real initiative to bring everyone back on the table.”
The latest round of talks over a hostage-ceasefire deal, held in Qatar, collapsed this week, with Jerusalem recalling its delegation.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said the impasse arose because “one party is looking for a partial deal that might… lead to a comprehensive deal, and the other party is looking just for a one-off deal… and to end the war and to get all the hostages out”, without specifying which side was which.
This, according to Al-Thani, resulted in a “fundamental gap” which could not be bridged by negotiating teams.
In the wake of the news, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said: “For 19 months now, the supreme moral obligation of returning the kidnapped men and women, down to the last of them, has been marked by continuous and searing failure. There will be no partial, minimal, and certainly no complete victory until this goal is achieved.”
