Matan Angrest's bag recovered by IDF from Gaza

His mother, Anat, posted on X/Twitter that “Matan’s bag was returned to me this week in a black plastic bag. How and when will Matan return? Why do I keep receiving items that speak to his condition, but not Matan himself?

“They told me they found Matan’s bag, and it would take two more days for it to reach me. I didn’t understand what it was about. Then this bag arrived, with Matan’s name in my handwriting,” she told Ynet. Matan has had this bag since his childhood.

“He was seriously injured in a tank on the morning of October 7, evacuated unconscious to Gaza after immense abuse,” she said. “Since then, he has been undergoing interrogations, asthma attacks, severe burns, and his wounds are becoming infected by the humidity of the tunnels.

“When Edan Alexander was released, we realized that we could talk about the soldiers. We must conduct tough negotiations and insist on Matan’s release because of his condition.”

Anat also mentioned to Ynet that she hasn’t cooked since her son was taken hostage. “When Matan returns, I will go back to cooking. Steaks, shakshuka, everything he loves. What I look forward to most is sitting with him on a Saturday morning, eating shakshuka, and hearing what he went through.”

Anat added that her son wanted to be a soldier so much that he even “hid from the army that he had asthma.”

Matan’s father, Haggai, said on Radio 103FM this past week that if the information about his son’s condition had been relayed, he likely would have been released in the last exchange.

Last month, the family released new footage of Angrest’s kidnapping to Gaza, which was filmed by a terrorist and seized by the IDF, showing the soldier being pulled out of the tank and thrown into a crowd of dozens of terrorists who brutally lynched him.

Walla contributed to this report.