Mother of hostage soldier Matan Angrest says he will be disabled for life

Anat Angrest, mother of Matan Angrest, 22, a soldier who was taken captive by Hamas from a burning IDF tank at the Nahal Oz military base during the battle on October 7, 2023, speaks at The Hostages Families Forum press conference on World Health Day.

“Matan’s face is not symmetric anymore,” she says. “His hand that was badly injured wasn’t treated, and we know it doesn’t function anymore.”

“He will be disabled his whole life,” she says.

She says that some of the hostages who were released in the past few months saw Matan in Gaza and said that “he is starving and being held in a little cage in the dark. He doesn’t see the daylight. He is exposed to torture and violence and never sees the Red Cross.”

She says she has a “special connection” with Matan, the oldest of her four children. “I felt him on October,” she says. “At 6:30 in the morning, I woke up and wrote him, and he said ‘Don’t worry, Mother, everything is okay.'”

“His life is in danger,” Angrest says. “If he doesn’t come out now, we might not be able to get him out alive.”