The embodiment of strength

Former hostages Matan Zangauker and Ilana Gritzwesky getting engaged defines what true victory looks like.

They both were taken on Oct 7th from Nir Oz.

She said about her abduction, “They grabbed me by the hair, hit me in the stomach, causing me to lose my breath. They dragged me across the floor, lifted me, and threw me against the wall. They pointed guns at me, hit me, and tried to film me with my phone. "

“I remember the g*n pressed against my head, I remember them laughing as they dragged me by my hair, I remember dirty hands stealing everything I was.”

They beat her, s*xually ab*sed her, and held her captive for 55 days. She lost 24 lbs during that time, having a piece of dry flat bread or 10 chickpeas a day, while her captors ate full meals of meat and vegetables in front of them.

The t*rrorists who held her were a math teacher, the other a lawyer.

In many interviews, she has "recalled the hellish deeds etched into my body."

She was held in a hospital where only ter*rists could enter. They taunted her, saying that she would be able to see her partner Matan, but never let her.

Ilana reported that at one point, one of her captors hugged her and told her at g*npoint that she would not be released even if Israel and Hamas reached a hostage deal, because “he wanted to marry her and have her children.”

“I became a piece of property. I became a captive who they could come to touch, to tell me we would get married, to leave me in underwear and a bra whenever they wanted.”

When she was finally released with a broken hip, she joined her Matan's mother, Einav, in fighting for all the h*stages and Matan's return home. The two of them became among the most vocal advocates for the hostages.

She said, “I’m not really available for my own rehabilitation, not for the body and not least for the soul."

They protested, and fought, and in August, Ilana went to the UN Security Council to demand they all be brought home.

Matan was freed after 738 days in captivity.

He was held underground for most of the time, shifted between tunnels and safehouses, hospitals, and schools, starved, and held in a cage.

He was filmed for H*mas pr*paganda, whipped with a fridge cable to protect another h*stage.

They told him false stories about the fighting against the IDF, playing mind games him. When he questioned them, they beat him.

When other h*stages were released, and he was left alone, he thought he would d*e in G*za.

But he was released and was reunited with his family and Ilana in Israel.

Matan said about his return home, “there are moments that I really can’t comprehend that I’m here… I have to pinch myself, and I wake up and return to reality.”

And now, around 2 and a half months after returning home, Matan and Ilana are engaged.

Einav posted the photo on X and said, "My picture of victory, Ilana & Matan.

I'll just say this:

We can't begin to understand what these two have been through.

What this family has endured.

But they are the embodiment of strength.

Because to choose life after coming face to face with d*ath; all of them, every day... this is victory.

Because it would be enough just to survive.

But to choose to live.

To choose to love.

To choose to make a life.

That is true victory.

Mazal tov Matan & Ilana!

May you only know peace and sweeteness all your days together.