Hostage and Missing Persons Coordinator Gal Hirsch responded to statements by Anat Engrest, mother of captured soldier Matan Engrest, who revealed that she wrote to Hirsch: "My son is turning into skin and bones," to which he allegedly replied: "This is Hamas propaganda." In a post published on X, he wrote: "I am attaching the quote of the message that families received from me yesterday: The videos published by Islamic Jihad (yesterday) and Hamas (today) are painful and difficult. I added in a personal response to one of the inquiries that the images are indeed difficult and that the videos are part of Hamas's starvation campaign." According to him, "The message broadcast in the media does not reflect the message I conveyed to the families."