Former hostages Matan Zangauker and Ilana Gritzewsky have become engaged, marking a deeply personal milestone after surviving captivity in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 massacre.
The engagement was revealed overnight on Sunday with a photograph showing the couple raising glasses of champagne beside a “Will you marry me” sign. The image, taken outside the guitar-shaped Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida, captures a quiet moment of celebration far removed from the trauma that once defined their lives.
Zangauker, now 26, was released in October 2025 after nearly two years in captivity. He and Gritzewsky, 31, were abducted together from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, when Hamas terrorists stormed the community. As gunmen fired at the door of their safe room, the couple jumped through a window and fled in different directions in a desperate attempt to escape.
Gritzewsky was seized and forced onto a motorcycle between two armed men, her head covered as she was taken into Gaza. Zangauker was also kidnapped separately and driven into Gaza on a motorcycle, where he later described being beaten by crowds of civilians upon arrival. At the time, neither knew the fate of the other.
Gritzewsky was freed in November 2023 after nearly two months in captivity. Zangauker remained a hostage for almost two more years, unaware that she had also been taken. He later recounted that he only learned the truth when he was briefly allowed to watch television on the day of her release. The moment brought conflicting emotions. Relief that she was alive and free, alongside the shock of realizing they had both endured captivity.
