The parents of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Matan Angrest, 22, who has been held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza for 545 days, released never-seen-before photos of his abduction on Thursday night.
The pictures, which were reportedly recovered from the Gaza Strip by the IDF, show Angrest being forcibly taken from his tank near the Nahal Oz military outpost and subsequently beaten by a Palestinian crowd.
The family said they would release video footage later on Thursday.
Angrest, the last remaining Israeli soldier who served at Nahal Oz, is believed to be alive but has not been freed in a deal or rescue mission.
He was taken, wounded, but alive, with the corpses of his comrades IDF Capt. Daniel Perez, 22, from Yad Binyamin, and Staff Sgt. Itay Chen, 19, from Netanya. A few days later, the body of Sgt. Tomer Leibovitz, 19, from Tel Aviv, was recovered inside their tank.
“We are forced to release footage of my son Matan from the moments of his abduction—being lynched, beaten by a mob,” his mother, Anat Angrest, said earlier on Thursday. “I avoided watching this video, which only my husband, Haggai, had seen until recently, but I realized we have no choice.”
“I must set aside my own feelings and think only about what I need to do to prove ... that there are people buried underground, in immediate life-threatening danger—and they can still be saved,” Angrest’s mother stated.
Hamas released a propaganda video on March 8 in which Angrest called for the Israeli government to agree unconditionally to the second phase of the ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian terrorist organization.
The 42-day first phase of the deal expired on March 1. Gaps between the two sides with regard to Phase-2 talks remain wide, and Hamas refused a U.S. proposal to extend Phase 1 during the Islamic month of Ramadan.
“Please, I beg you, bring us back alive, not in a coffin,” Angrest says in the video. The family authorized the footage’s presentation to the public.
The family said in a statement, “We are shaken by the video we just saw, in which we see our Matan looking drained and desperate after 518 days in Hamas’s tunnels.
“Beyond the severe psychological state evident in the footage, his right hand is nonfunctional, his eyes and mouth are asymmetrical, and his nose is broken—according to testimonies from those who have returned, all due to interrogations and torture in captivity.”
A resident of Kiryat Bialik, one of Haifa’s bayside suburbs, Angrest enlisted into the IDF as a combat soldier after graduating from high school. He was due to be released from army service in April 2024.
“Matan kept telling us not to worry because a tank is the safest and the most secure place in the army,” Anat Angrest told JNS in July 2024.
Fifty-nine abductees remain captive in Gaza, according to official Israel Defense Forces figures. At least 35 of them are believed to be dead.
