The mother of Israeli hostage Avinatan Or said in an interview on Channel 14’s program “The Patriots” Saturday night that his Hamas captor told him that Hamas was too weak to hold on to the hostages any longer.

Ditza Or said that when her son found out that Hamas had agreed to release all the remaining hostages in one fell swoop, he asked his captor why the group would agree to release all of its precious remaining bargaining chips, with which it held such sway over the Israelis.

“Why are you releasing all of us in one day? Everyone you have left, all your diamonds?” his mother quoted him as saying.

“Hamas is weak. There’s nothing we can do. We have to,” she quoted the terrorist as responding.

According to Ditza, Avinatan recounted the exchange during an interview with “Uvda,” which aired on Oct. 5, but the broadcaster left it out of the final version.

The mother said that when she heard about Avinatan’s exchange with his captor, she felt vindicated.

“We said from the beginning that the only way to bring back the hostages, as many as possible and ultimately all of them, was to defeat Hamas,” she said.

Avinatan Or was released on Oct. 13, 2025, as part of the ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, after 738 days in captivity. The former hostage was arrested alongside his then-girlfriend Noa Argamani on Oct. 7, 2023, at the Nova Music Festival. Their capture became the face of the hostage crisis as wrenching footage of their abduction became one of the most famous videos of that terrible day.

The IDF recently eliminated the terrorist who held him hostage as part of its mission to capture or kill every single terrorist who participated in the Oct. 7 attack or in holding hostages.