Bag belonging to hostage Matan Angrest found in Gaza, returned to his mother
Anat Angrest recounts receiving the item, which bears Matan’s name in her handwriting; says she’d rather receive her son than ‘objects that attest to his condition’
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A bag belonging to Matan Angrest, a hostage who has been held in Gaza for 644 days, was recently found in the southern part of the Strip and returned to his mother, a report said Friday.
“They told me they found a bag belonging to Matan, and it will take two days until it reaches me,” Anat Angrest told the Ynet news site. “I didn’t understand what they were talking about. And then this bag came, with Matan’s name in my handwriting.”
Angrest said the red and black bag was from the time that her son played for the Hapoel Haifa youth team when he was 14 years old — before he became a fan of city rival Maccabi Haifa. “This is a personal bag, not an army one, which had items in it, something from Matan’s life that was with him there.”
Anat Angrest also posted about the bag on social media, tweeting: “Matan’s bag was returned to me this week in a black bag. When will Matan return? Why do I need to keep getting objects that attest to his condition rather than getting Matan?”
התיק של מתן הוחזר לי השבוע בשקית שחורה
איך ומתי מתן יחזור?
למה אני צריכה להמשיך לקבל חפצים שמעידים על מצבו ולא את מתן? pic.twitter.com/w8qkJZXGkU— ענת אנגרסט (@anatangrest) July 11, 2025
The hostage’s father, Haggai, was recently in Washington during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to the US capital, to protest for a hostage agreement.
“Matan is alive. He’s in the tunnels in Gaza, and his life is in substantial danger,” he told Ynet at a rally in Washington. “He’s almost lost his life a few times. We’ve come here to push President Trump and the prime minister to make a complete deal. We’re waiting for news that all our loved ones are coming home. The feeling is good. We see that there is something. President Trump is on it, and so is Netanyahu. We’ve come to support them.”
The 21-year-old Angrest, an IDF soldier, was kidnapped from a tank by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.
"עם שמו בכתב היד שלי": התיק של מתן אנגרסט אותר זרוק ברצועה, והושב לאימוhttps://t.co/BPYnjMEQNn pic.twitter.com/7M9eQmo0N9
— ynet עדכוני (@ynetalerts) July 11, 2025
His family allowed media outlets to air a full video of his abduction last month to raise pressure on the government to sign a deal for his release.
Angrest’s serious medical condition was detailed by a Channel 12 report last month, citing evidence received by the family and a medical analysis of the information. According to some reported medical opinions, his poor health puts him at risk of death.
The report said Angrest has been subjected to torture with car batteries and electric paddles until losing consciousness. He suffers from chronic asthma attacks, particularly after the violent interrogations.
He has suffered severe injuries to his hands, including severe burns to the nerves and untreated infections. As such, he can no longer move some of his fingers, the report said.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March, and one additional hostage, a dual American-Israeli citizen, in May as a “gesture” to the United States. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.
Eight alive hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops, and the bodies of 49 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The Times of Israel Community.