Anat Angrest recounted the chilling moment she received a bag belonging to her son, hostage Matan Angrest, found abandoned in southern Gaza. “They told me they found Matan’s bag and it would take two days to reach me,” she said.
“It was his personal bag from when he played for Hapoel Haifa F.C. at 14, with his belongings, a piece of his life there.” A devoted Maccabi Haifa fan, Matan’s bag, marked with her handwriting, was one of the last items he touched.
Matan, an IDF soldier, was severely injured in a tank on October 7, 2023, abducted to Gaza unconscious after abuse and revived with electric shocks from batteries. “He’s enduring interrogations, asthma attacks, shortness of breath, severe burns and infected wounds in the humid tunnels,” Anat said.
“He’s been seen struggling between life and death and he’s still there.” Some 21 months after his abduction, Anat refuses to accept that Matan won’t be included in the humanitarian phase of releases should a ceasefire agreement be signed.
“He fought just as the state sent him to do. How can we leave him behind because he’s a soldier? Edan Alexander’s release showed soldiers can be negotiated for. We need tough talks to secure Matan’s release given his condition.”
In Matan’s room, time stands still. “The sheets are from October 7, his scent lingers, his last shoes, skateboard, PlayStation,” Anat said. “I cleaned recently but won’t touch his bed until he returns. Then I’ll get him the softest sheets he deserves. Since his abduction, I haven’t cooked.
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“How can I when I know he’s hungry? Matan would come home from the military, grill steaks with his father, Hagai, listening to Omer Adam, the smell reaching the neighbors. Now the grill is covered. Fridays were celebrations; now they're silent.”
Despite the time passed and Matan’s dire condition in captivity, Anat holds onto hope. “If he’s survived this long, we must bring him back,” she said, envisioning cooking his favorite steaks and other meals, sitting together on a Saturday morning to hear his ordeal and finally touch him.
Matan was determined to enlist as a combat soldier, hiding his asthma to raise his medical profile. “No one could convince him otherwise,” Anat said. “His values depend on us now. Matan wouldn’t leave anyone behind and we can’t leave him.
“If a friend couldn’t afford a game ticket, Matan stayed home as well. A neighbor said he always helped with her groceries. He was a mama’s boy. We had a language of looks. He wanted to study what I studied, follow my path.”
Anat’s greatest fear is that negotiators will return without a deal or delay IDF soldiers’ release still in Hamas’s hands. “Matan’s alive, fighting for us all. He needs to come back now,” she said. Matan’s father, Hagai Angrest, traveled to Washington during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S.
At a hostage families’ rally on Monday, he told Ynet, “Matan’s alive in Gaza’s tunnels, in real danger, nearly losing his life multiple times. We’re here to push President [Donald] Trump and the prime minister for a comprehensive deal.
“We’re waiting for news that all our loved ones return home.” He added, “The feeling is positive. Something’s happening. Trump and Netanyahu are on it. We came to support them.”