Matan Zangauker calls on Israelis to 'make noise'

(JNS) — In video footage screened for the first time at a rally in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, Hamas hostage Matan Zangauker appealed to family and friends to increase their efforts to secure his release. 

“To all my acquaintances, all my friends, go out and make noise as only you know how, and with God’s help we will see each other soon,” he said. 

Zangauker, who was taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, said that he missed his mother, sister and girlfriend, adding that “God willing” they would be reunited “soon.”

The video was obtained by Israeli forces operating in the Gaza Strip and delivered to the Zangauker family, according to Israel’s Channel 12 News.

His mother Einav addressed the audience at Hostage Square after the screening.

“I’m burning with longing. My whole heart is on fire for you, my Matan,” she said, according to Channel 12.

Matan’s girlfriend, Ilana Gritzewsky, who survived 55 days in Gaza captivity, staged a symbolic wedding earlier on Sunday at Hostage Square.

She was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7 along with Matan.

“We could have been married,” Gritzewsky said during the mock ceremony, standing alongside Einav Zangauker under the traditional Jewish wedding canopy.

“I can’t stop thinking about what was taken from us: the innocence and the love. In one day, our world was shattered, and you’re not here with me to hold me, and I can’t be there to give you strength,” she said, according to Channel 12.

As of Aug. 18, 148 hostages have been returned alive to Israel — eight of them rescued through military operations. Most have been redeemed in exchange for Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons.

An additional 56 bodies of captives were repatriated to Israel.

On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his support for an agreement with Hamas to end the war in Gaza, but only if it meant the release of all the remaining hostages.

“We will agree to an agreement in which all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war, which include the disarmament of Hamas, the demilitarization of the Strip, Israeli control of the perimeter, and the establishment of a governing authority that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority, and that will live in peace with Israel,” the premier said, according to his office.