Hostage’s mother says Netanyahu ‘isn’t fighting’ for permanently wounded son

By Jessica Steinberg

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15 April 2025, 2:27 pm

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Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

Anat Angrest, center, wearing her son Matan's IDF uniform, next to Idit Ohel, mother of hostage Alon Ohel, at a Shift 101 sit-in in Kiryat Bialik on April 15, 2025 (Shani Tamim/Shift 101)

Anat Angrest, mother of hostage Matan Angrest, an IDF soldier taken captive on October 7, 2023, and still held in Hamas captivity, speaks at a Shift 101 sit-in in the northern town of Kiryat Bialik, alongside Idit Ohel, the mother of hostage Alon Ohel.

Angrest, wearing her son Matan’s army uniform and with her husband holding a blown-up version of his ID card, says the information they’ve received about Matan points to wounds that can’t be reversed.

“Despite that, the prime minister of Israel isn’t fighting for him,” charges Angrest.

“I’m wearing his uniform to call attention to the fact that the soldiers haven’t been included in any deal, neither the wounded soldiers nor the bodies of soldiers, including Hadar Goldin, whose body has been held there for 10 and a half years,” she says. “We demand from the Israeli government that in the next release of hostages, the soldiers will be returned — not because of US citizenship,” referring to soldier hostage Edan Alexander, who is a dual Israeli-American citizen, “but because of their blue-and-white citizenship. They belong to Israel and need to be returned here.”