Parents of ex-hostage soldier call for state commission of inquiry into Oct. 7, Israel’s conduct in truce talks

By Noam Lehmann 25 October 2025, 8:50 pm

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Anat and Hagai Angrest, the parents of freed hostage soldier Matan Angrest, speak at a rally at Hostages Square, in Tel Aviv, where protesters are calling for the release of the final 13 deceased hostages, on October 25, 2025. (Marcelo Sznaidman/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Anat and Hagai Angrest, whose soldier son Matan was released from Hamas captivity on October 13 as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, call for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into failures surrounding the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, and Israel’s conduct in subsequent truce talks.

Thanking thousands of people gathered at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, Matan’s mother Anat says she “takes a breath of relief as a mother along with the mothers of combat soldiers, who now know that when they send their children to fight for the country, the country will fight for them too in difficult times — if necessary, even against messianic decision-makers who agreed to give up and sacrifice the brave fighters.”

“As a combat soldier, Matan was forced to suffer horrific interrogations in the tunnel dungeons, while seriously wounded and bleeding between life and death for months on end,” says Anat.

Matan “breathed the last breath” of his three fellow tank crew-members, all of whom were killed on October 7, and his “eyes are awash with tears” when he recalls that the remains of one, Itay Chen, are still in Gaza, she says.

“So we don’t stop — we go on until everyone comes back,” says Anat, adding that a timely ceasefire deal could have “saved the lives of 44 hostages” who were killed in captivity.

“We join the call to investigate the events of October 7 and form a state commission of inquiry to understand why so many citizens were murdered, maimed and abducted,” she says. “We ask to add an additional clause to investigate the conduct of the negotiations and the decisions to prolong the longest war in the country’s history.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls for a state commission of inquiry, saying such a commission would be biased against him since it is led by the judiciary, which his government has sought to weaken.

On Wednesday, the Knesset State Control Commission, where his coalition members hold the majority, nixed the opposition’s latest bid to form a state commission of inquiry.