Father of kidnapped soldier Matan Angrest accuses PM of failing to act on son’s condition

Hagai Angrest, the father of kidnapped soldier Matan Angrest, claimed on Radio 103FM on Tuesday that if the information about his son's condition had been relayed, he likely would have been released in the last exchange. "We've been waiting for a phone call from the prime minister for three months," he said.

"He underwent electrocution, he lost consciousness several times, so they shocked him, he went through torture, electric shocks, various fractures inside. Two days after we were with the prime minister, a Hamas video was released. The report we received from the intelligence services was very lenient, and something didn’t match up with what we saw.

"We sent it to professors, experts, who issued reports for us. We investigated again with the returned captives and found the picture was different. Our security bodies admitted there was a failure and that not all the material was transferred to the committee that decides who will be released. He’s the most humanitarian of all the lists that were released. Yes, since then, we’ve been fighting, exposing, transferring, and releasing very detailed medical reports."

He further commented on the published footage, stating, "The prime minister didn’t know Matan was injured. Now he knows, and he’s received detailed medical reports from the country’s top experts in all the categories that Matan is in. We want the prime minister to take responsibility for his soldiers. Just like President Trump took responsibility for Edan Alexander, we want the prime minister to take responsibility for a blue-and-white soldier."

According to him, "Two months after the start of the event (October 7), what the prime minister told us was – 'Humanitarian is humanitarian without gender; if Matan is injured, he will be in the humanitarian category,' and he repeated this at the meeting we had three months ago – 'If I had known Matan was injured, I would have fought for him.' To this day, no minister or the prime minister has taken responsibility for the soldiers. No one is talking about them, no one is fighting for them. The soldiers have become invisible; no one is demanding them."

"For three months, we’ve submitted a request via Gal Hirsch to the prime minister to first address the video showing Matan is injured. The prime minister calls every family when a video of their soldier is released, but us, we’re still waiting. Gal Hirsch said he’s busy and making rounds with the families, and he still hasn’t had time to speak with us. We’ve been waiting for three months for a phone call from the prime minister saying, ‘I’m aware of Matan's condition, and I will fight for him.’ We haven’t heard anything about that. We’re still waiting, three months. Every mother sending a soldier to the army should understand the situation."

"The Defense Minister? We’ve submitted requests for a meeting with the IDF chief of staff. To this day, we know that military pressure has brought us 43 casualties, and for three weeks, our officer has been trying to arrange a meeting for the soldiers' families, without success. We’re still waiting for a meeting with the chief of staff."

"We met the minister responsible for negotiations three weeks ago. We met with Vitkoff, who is always ready to meet with us, we have a personal relationship with him. We went into the White House, and they said, 'There’s a surprise, someone who will really want to meet you.' They introduced us to Ron Dermer in the White House. He explained to us who’s who, the things we all know, they’re still talking. Nothing special."