As family publishes kidnapping video, Anat Angrest reveals Hamas' torture of her son, kidnapped IDF soldier Matan

Anat Angrest, the mother of kidnapped IDF soldier Matan Angrest, was interviewed today on KAN 11's Friday News and revealed disturbing details about her son's medical condition and her last meeting, about a month ago, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I felt that he wasn’t aware of Matan's condition, barely knew the tank story, and that there’s a kidnapped soldier named Matan Angrest," said Anat. "I left with my kids feeling very distressed."

According to her, three days after the meeting, a video of Matan was released showing that his medical condition was deteriorating and that he suffers from irreversible disabilities. "Matan can no longer move his arm, he has facial fractures, and more testimonies are being collected from returning hostages. We released a few seconds from the video so people understand what he went through. The rest of the video – I still haven’t watched. My husband, Haggai, won’t let me."

Angrest explained why the family recently published the kidnapping video: "Security and government officials advised us not to speak about Matan because he’s a soldier. In the last deal, a humanitarian deal that included wounded individuals, we realized Matan wasn’t being mentioned, and then we understood we were in trouble. The prime minister has an obligation to Matan as a wounded soldier from the fighting on October 7th."

Anat described the morning of October 7th: "My son and his team went out to defend the Nahal Oz post from being overrun. You can hear them on the radio from inside the tank, realizing they’re the only tank there and that they must go out and defend the post. For two and a half hours, they did everything they could between the post and the fence. When Matan’s three team members were killed, he lay wounded in the tank for another hour, until they came, kidnapped him, and lynched him all the way to Gaza."

Angrest revealed that the video they published reached them only two days ago, but there are even more disturbing videos. "There’s a video of Matan being led into Gaza, tortured and lynched until he lost consciousness. The next time he woke up was in Gaza."

Speaking about testimonies from released hostages, Anat said: "He is undergoing interrogations with torture and violence. He is held in harsh conditions, in cages. He’s starved, beaten, and tortured. This is an IDF soldier who went out to defend the country and was never acknowledged as a wounded humanitarian soldier. The prime minister is not fighting for him."

Regarding the replacement of officials in the Shin Bet, Angrest said: "As a mother, I won’t go into the prime minister’s considerations in replacing people or who he keeps around him. I just know that everyone who supported the deal from a certain point in the fighting is no longer in their position. It's a very frightening process. All the security officials who surrounded the prime minister and told him it was possible to go for a deal and end the war."

She said she understood in their meeting that the prime minister "is not willing to stop the war even to bring everyone back. He spoke in terms of a ceasefire or a long-term truce. In the end, all 59 will return when the war ends. Meanwhile, we’ve been in a drip-drip method for a year and a half, and those paying the price are the ones left behind, including my son."

Angrest concluded with a harsh call: "My son is not to blame for the fact that there were 255 hostages. Every person still there is a world unto themselves, so right now, instead of sending more soldiers into another round of fighting – first bring back those you already sent. First bring them back, then send soldiers to battle. Because today they know that if, God forbid, they are kidnapped, they’ll be the last ones."