Footage shows soldier Matan Angrest being kidnapped on Oct. 7, interrogated in Gaza

Footage aired for the first time on Thursday showed the abduction of hostage soldier Matan Angrest during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel and his subsequent interrogation in Gaza.

The 21-year-old was taken from a tank at the Nahal Oz military base during the battle there.

In the kidnapping video, which appeared to have been taken from a Hamas bodycam, Angrest can be seen wounded and shirtless, being manhandled by several Hamas gunmen on top of the tank.

The pictures were broadcast by Channel 12’s “Uvda” program, which also featured excerpts from an extended conversation between Angrest’s parents and the five female surveillance soldiers who were abducted from the Nahal Oz base.

Channel 12 also aired previously unseen footage of Angrest, appearing weak and bruised, being asked basic personal questions by one of his captors, then being made to respond in English and Hebrew.

The women, who were released as part of the hostage-ceasefire deal reached in January that has since collapsed, were for a period of time held in the same tunnel as Angrest, though separately from him.

תיעוד רגעי החטיפה של החייל מתן אנגרסט@Uvda_tweet pic.twitter.com/IxvYOnXugp

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) April 3, 2025

They recalled being told by their captors that conditions were worse for men than for women.

“I remember that one of the big [Hamas] commanders was with us, and he told us there are hostages who — let’s put it this way, if they don’t follow instructions — they’ll give it to them in the head,” recalled Daniela Gilboa.

She also recalled hearing about a hostage being punished, whom the captors “hinted” was Matan.

“He said that Matan went someplace he shouldn’t have gone, and when they discovered it… they didn’t show mercy to him, let’s put it that way,” she said. “And then he knew not to do it again.”

Karina Ariev recalled: “They said they beat him up until he understood, and he wouldn’t walk anymore, to that place.”

Liri Albag remembered a captor saying: “We have a [male] soldier from Nahal Oz and he’s our gold,” or, on another occasion, “he’s our victory,” emphasizing to the women that while they, as soldiers, would be among the last hostages released, the male soldiers would remain captive even longer.

“They punish, they abuse, even when it’s not physical — and it is physical [sometimes] — then it’s mental, or it’s psychological,” Albag added.

לבקשת משפחתו של מתן אנגרסט – אות החיים מהשבי: "אני רוצה לראות את המשפחה שלי, נתניהו אני סומך עלייך"https://t.co/LkVyyQ0QZE | @Uvda_tweet pic.twitter.com/Da8aMz2f5O

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) April 3, 2025

Naama Levy recalled meeting Angrest face-to-face on their 50th day in captivity, during the first hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas, reached in November 2023, when Hamas captors put the two in a car together.

“He sat next to me and it took me a moment to absorb that this was also a hostage. I thought at first that it was someone from Hamas,” Levy said. “He had a hat on. I saw that he was wounded in his hand, and he also said he was wounded in his other arm, in his shoulder, but in his hand, I really saw the burns and the wound.”

“I had a small bag of cookies with me and I heard him say he hadn’t eaten in a long time, so I gave him the cookies I had. There was another hostage in the car with us and he also gave [cookies] to the other hostage,” she said.

Angrest mentioned to Levy that his birthday was three days away at the time of their meeting, and expressed his belief they would be home soon. “And then we went down into a tunnel, but we were separate.”

The surveillance soldiers recalled hearing Angrest being interrogated on one occasion, saying it went on for “several hours, continuously.”

Ariev recalled a particular Hamas commander repeatedly saying that the captors were bringing Angrest bandages for his wounds — but she acknowledged, “I don’t know if they really brought them to him, but that’s what he said.”

Eventually, Angrest was taken out of the tunnel and moved to another location due to his injuries, the surveillance soldiers said.

Levy described seeing the small room where Angrest was held, describing it as a “small cage, with a kind of gate.”

“You can’t stand straight in it because the ceiling just ends,” she said.

Angrest’s family had not previously permitted the airing of footage of his capture, but in a statement to media outlets Thursday, his mother Anat said: “This situation has brought us to do things that are the opposite of our character. In the beginning, we stayed silent. We didn’t publish evidence, with difficulty we published the first picture of him in captivity. We wanted to safeguard Matan’s privacy and hoped he would soon be released, that he could explain his own story, and that it was up to him to decide.”

Last month, the family approved the publication of a propaganda clip of Angrest begging to be set free, days after publishing the first photo of him from captivity, taken from a previous video received from Hamas. That still followed an audio recording released several months earlier, in which Angrest begged Netanyahu to secure his release, in comments likely dictated by his captors.

Due to the collapse of the January 19 ceasefire deal, Angrest said her family has been forced to take measures they never believed they would take, claiming, “the State allows soldiers to be left behind.”

“I want to tell the IDF — you want to succeed in returning him through military pressure. The only way to return him is through a deal, and to carry out stage two,” Anat Angrest said.

She appealed to US President Donald Trump to help return the hostages, saying he is the only one who can pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into reaching a deal.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. Among them are the bodies of at least 35 hostages who have been confirmed dead by the IDF.

Israel restarted intense bombing of Gaza on March 18 and then launched a new ground offensive, ending the nearly two-month ceasefire, which saw Hamas release 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives between January and March.

Some families received information on their loved ones’ deteriorating status from those released during the ceasefire. The renewal of military operations has sparked fears of increased danger for the hostages.

According to the terms of the January 19 ceasefire deal, the sides were to launch negotiations over the second phase a few weeks into the first, but Netanyahu refused to do so, insisting that the war would not end until Hamas’s governing and military capabilities had been demolished. Meanwhile, the terror group rejected a series of offers to extend the first phase while continuing to gradually free hostages.

Hamas has insisted on sticking to the original terms of the January deal, which envisioned a transition to phase two on March 2. That phase is supposed to see the return of all remaining living hostages in exchange for the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a permanent end to the war.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.