“He Gave Up on My Son”: Mother of Hostage Soldier Matan Angrest Blasts Netanyahu
In a searing public appeal, Anat Angrest accuses Prime Minister Netanyahu of knowingly sidelining her wounded son, Matan, an IDF soldier still held by Hamas, in favor of other hostages. Her plea: prove to Israel’s soldiers that the state won’t abandon its own.
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Anat Angrest, the mother of kidnapped Israeli soldier Matan Angrest, revealed in an interview today (Thursday) on Kan Reshet Bet that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told her during the previous hostage deal in January that “because our son is a soldier, he is currently giving up on him, despite his humanitarian condition.”
“My son is in a much, much worse condition than hostages who, thank God, returned in a certain state and are already in rapid recovery, while my son is still there,” Angrest said. “Netanyahu said he’s moving forward because he has no choice, that this deal did not include soldiers, despite Matan’s dire condition.”
Angrest added that Netanyahu insisted on the release of specific hostages in the previous deal, prioritizing them over others. “We have transcripts and protocols from senior officials showing how Israel refused to move forward without them,” she said.
According to Angrest, these discussions took place with accompanying officers in various forums and were documented. “The Prime Minister and Gal Hirsch know which names were brought to our attention that Israel insisted on, without them, there would be no deal.” She declined to specify the names of the hostages Netanyahu prioritized in the previous deal.
Fifty hostages remain in Hamas captivity in Gaza, including 49 men and one woman. “Now Hamas calls them all soldiers, but my son was kidnapped in uniform. He was wounded in battle and endured a brutal lynching, and he must be fought for. There are testimonies from interrogations about the horrors he’s facing. He is in hellish torment precisely because he is a soldier and they gave up on him,” Angrest said.
She appealed to the Prime Minister, demanding that he insist on Matan’s release from captivity: “After Edan Alexander was released, and we showed that it’s possible to insist and secure a soldier’s release, I demand that Netanyahu insist this time on Matan as an Israeli soldier, bringing him home wrapped in a blue-and-white flag, not an American one.”
Angrest stressed that this must be done, among other reasons, “to prove to IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza that if, God forbid, something like this happens to them, the state will stand behind them and not abandon them.”