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Hagai Angrest, the father of hostage Matan Angrest, speaks during Economic Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 3, 2025. (Photo: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
The Angrest family has just made public the first photo of their son since his abduction: a still taken from a propaganda video issued by the Hamas terrorist organization.
Matan Angrest was dragged unconscious and wounded from his tank on Oct. 7, 2023. He has been held captive in Gaza at the hands of Hamas ever since. Now his parents have released harrowing news of his condition.
“This is the first footage from a video of Matan Angrest, a soldier who was kidnapped while wounded and unconscious from a tank at the Nahal Oz outpost,” his family said in a statement.
In the video, the 21-year-old soldier urges the Israeli government to agree to a hostage deal, with a speech most likely dictated by his captors. His parents allowed the footage to be released on Monday evening.
Angrest was abducted from Nahal Oz during the fierce fighting. Now he is being held in Gaza under ‘inhumane conditions’, and is experiencing severe mistreatment and interrogations under torture, Ynet News reported .
“Matan is in mortal danger,” his mother, Anat said . “All the hostages must be brought home before more soldiers are sent to battle and don’t return.”
Even though Angrest was severely wounded, he was not included in the recent humanitarian release because of his position in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), according to his parents .
“He had gone out with his team to defend the outpost and the kibbutzim. Matan was abducted in critical condition and is enduring unimaginable suffering, torture during interrogations, and inhumane conditions. Despite being severely wounded, he was not returned in the humanitarian phase, solely because he is an Israeli soldier,” they said.
There had been no sign of life to give the family hope for more than six months until just recently, when some of the released captives were able to confirm that Angrest was still alive.
Hagai Angrest, father of Matan, affirmed that the family had received confirmation about his condition less than a month ago, saying , “We heard from released hostages that our beloved son Matan is alive. It was incredibly emotional for us.”
He urged, “The time has come to bring him back, along with all the others. We expect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to advance the second phase of the deal immediately. We all saw the horrific images –scenes of a Holocaust in 2025, here in Israel. Bring Matan and the rest of the hostages home now. Their situation is dire, and it is time to bring them back.”
“We demand that the Israeli government implement all stages of the hostage deal before moving on to the next phase of the war,” insisted Anat.
There are still 59 hostages held in Gaza, at least 35 of whom have been confirmed dead by the IDF. Angrest was abducted into Gaza along with the bodies of fellow soldiers Itai Chen, Daniel Peretz and Tomer Leibovitz, all of whom were killed during the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre.
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