- Title: 'Don't sacrifice my son,' mother of Israeli hostages marches at Gaza border
- Date: 18th March 2025
- Summary: NEAR GAZA BORDER, SOUTHERN ISRAEL (MARCH 18, 2025) (REUTERS) HOSTAGE MOTHER AND PROTEST LEADER EINAV ZANGAUKER, LEADING GROUP OF SUPPORTERS, WALKING ALONGSIDE ARMY COMMANDER TOWARDS ISRAEL'S BORDER WHERE HER SON MATAN IS HELD HOSTAGE, SAYING (Hebrew): "If the country does not return them home to us, we will go and build a house with them in Gaza." VARIOUS OF ZANGAUKER MARC
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: Einav Zangauker Gaza Gaza border Israel Israeli army Matan Zangauker Palestinians hostages mother proetst leade
- Location: NEAR GAZA BORDER, SOUTHERN ISRAEL
- City: NEAR GAZA BORDER, SOUTHERN ISRAEL
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Middle East,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001981918032025RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, marched toward the Gaza border on Tuesday (March 18) to express outrage, shared by many former hostages and families of some still held in Gaza, over the resumption of war and fear for their loved ones' safety.
Leading a group of protesters and joined by the army, Zangauker marched towards the Gaza fence where she hung posters of hostages and used a megaphone to address her 25-year-old son Matan Zangauker, kidnapped by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023.
"Don't let the prime minister and the members of his government sacrifice the lives of my son Matan and of all the other living hostages just to remain in power," Zangauker, a protest leader, said.
"We will not give up on you, we will not allow a return to fighting," she added.
Families of hostages and their supporters protested in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem outside Israel's parliament as anti-government demonstrators began a march to the city after Israel launched an onslaught on Gaza that ended weeks of relative calm after talks to secure a permanent ceasefire stalled.
Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza and killed more than 400 people, Palestinian health authorities said.
Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas each accused the other of breaching the truce, which had broadly held since January, offering respite from war for the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza, where most buildings have been reduced to rubble.
Hamas still holds 59 of the more than 250 hostages the group seized in its October 7, 2023 attack.
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