At rally, mother decries ‘shocking’ footage of hostage son, as ex-captives back deal

The mother of hostage Matan Angrest told a Tel Aviv rally Saturday night that her family had received further footage of her son in which he appears badly maimed physically and psychologically, as thousands gathered in the city and around the country to urge the government to reach a deal to return all remaining 59 captives.

Saturday night’s rally at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, the first since hostage releases were put on hold with the end of the first stage of the Gaza ceasefire deal a week ago, also saw recently freed soldier Eliya Cohen encourage Israel’s leaders in a video message to bring the rest of the hostages home, in his first public comments since being released last month. Karina Ariev, a soldier who was freed weeks earlier, appeared on stage at the rally, also a first.

Speaking a day after Hamas published a video showing Angrest, 21, alive for the first time since he was taken captive during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, Anat Angrest told gathered supporters that the family had received more “shocking” footage of her son, including pictures showing him undergoing a “brutal” beating.

“He looks listless, desperate and angry,” she said. “Beyond his difficult mental state, his right hand doesn’t work, his eyes and his mouth are not symmetrical, his nose is broken and there is serious uncertainty over the condition of his legs.”

The mother said that the wounds had been sustained while fighting Hamas terrorists on October 7, as well as from being interrogated and tortured in Gaza, according to those who had been with him in battle and in captivity. He had been forced to deal with the festering injuries on his own, Anat said.

“According to medical opinions, the damage to his body is irreversible,” she added.

The footage described by Anat Angrest was not released by Hamas, but rather had come from audio recordings and photographic evidence collected by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza and handed over to Angrest’s family.

On Friday, Hamas published a video of Angrest begging to be set free, in an apparent effort by the terror group to mobilize Israeli public opinion in favor of continuing the ceasefire deal amid an impasse in negotiations.

Angrest’s family approved the clip for publication. In it, he says he’s been told of the impasse in talks and feels that the Israeli government is deserting the hostages.

Israel says 59 hostages remain in Gaza, 24 of whom are believed to still be alive, all but one of them abducted during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, during which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped and dragged into Gaza. Hamas freed 33 hostages — including 8 who had been killed — over a 42-day initial phase of a ceasefire, but negotiations for the rest of the hostages are stuck, with Israel threatening to resume fighting if they are not all freed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Saturday night it was sending a negotiating team to Qatar for indirect talks with Hamas after Arabic media reports that the terror group had indicated a willingness to agree to a temporary extension of the Gaza ceasefire over Ramadan, which began last week.

Cohen, who was freed on February 22, thanked protesters in a pre-recorded message beamed to the rally and urged politicians not to leave the negotiating room until they successfully bring everyone home.

“We have an opportunity to return everyone. You successfully brought me back, you can bring back everyone. Those who are alive and the dead. There are people there sitting underground and are simply waiting to go home. You don’t know what they are experiencing,” he said. “There’s no reason in the world to continue dragging this out — not phase one, not phase two, and not phase three. Just get everyone out. Israel is strong enough to do this, and this is the time for our country to get everyone out.”

Ariev, a surveillance soldier, appeared on stage at the rally for the first time since being freed in late January after 477 days in captivity. She addressed hostages still in Gaza in Arabic, a language many have learned in captivity according to accounts of those freed, telling them to “start hoping again, because we will bring you back.”

“The hostages must be above all else. First worry about them, and afterward all the rest,” said the former captive, who also described being held “in awful conditions, in the dark, in the cold.”

Ariev also spoke in English to address US President Donald Trump, thanking him for his efforts to push the deal that saw her go free.

“The deal is not finished until everyone returns, and until we ensure lasting security for all of us,” she said. “Bring all of them home, Mr. president.”

Several other speakers also thanked Trump, who hosted eight former hostages at the White House last week, though the revelation in recent days that his administration was in direct contact with Hamas has caused some consternation in Israel.

Anti-government protest outside IDF HQ

At an anti-government demonstration outside of IDF headquarters in central Tel Aviv, the brother of hostage Nimrod Cohen appeared to express hope in the side channel, while accusing Netanyahu and his new hostage talks point man, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, of trying to convince Washington to abandon the effort.

Foreign leaders “have already understood that Israel is not so interested in releasing its hostages,” Yotam Cohen said. “The State of Israel is betraying the hostages.”

The rally drew some 2,000 participants, after an earlier anti-government protest at Habima Square had drawn some 250 activists, who chanted “the country is ours, not Netanyahu’s.” Using the premier’s nickname, they added “It won’t end until Bibi is arrested.”

Protesters were also addressed by Jimmy Miller, the cousin of slain hostage Shiri Silberman Bibas, and Jon Polin, father of slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

Silberman Bibas’s body was returned to Israel last month along with those of her young sons Ariel, 4, and Kfir, nine months, as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas. Her husband, and the boys’ father, Yarden Bibas, was returned to Israel alive on February 1.

Speaking through a megaphone to dozens of supporters, Miller said Yarden’s wish and only comfort was that “hostages will keep coming back alive.”

Addressing the government, Miller said: “It’s the very least you can do for us.”

Throughout the war, Silberman-Bibas’s cousin has been an energetic fixture of the hostage rallies, instantly recognizable by his orange shirt and hat — a tribute to the redheaded Ariel and Kfir. But on Saturday night, he appeared subdued, and dressed in black.

Polin, who spoke after Miller, was dressed in red — the color of Hersh’s favorite sports team, Hapoel Jerusalem — his shirt emblazoned with Hersh’s face and the slogan: “May his memory be a revolution.”

He recited a prayer asking God to give Israel’s leaders “the commitment and determination to complete the deal, even at the price of ending the war.”

Rallies calling for a hostage deal were also held in other locations around the country, including Kfar Saba, where the mother of hostage Eitan Horn and former hostage Iair Horn called for the government to do more.

“I raised them together. I felt them together [while in captivity], and they were together. Why did you separate them? The government must protect its citizens and bring back everyone,” she said.

At a Begin Road rally outside the IDF headquarters, police were accused of nearly creating a dangerous crush of people by deploying officers and placing trucks which reports said penned participants into a small area. Several elderly people were almost trampled, Channel 12 reported.

Police were accused of beating demonstrators who tried to get past the barriers to leave, Channel 12 news reported.

Footage shared on social media showed some protesters crawling beneath the parked trucks — often used by police for crowd control — to leave the area.

המשטרה חוסמת את היציאות ואנשים נאלצים לזחול בין המשאיות כדי לחלץ עצמם מהדוחק

תל אביב 08.03.25 pic.twitter.com/0JIZwM4Rbd

— אלימות ישראל (@Alimut_Israel) March 8, 2025

There was no immediate comment from police on the incident.

Yifat Calderon, cousin of released hostage Ofer Calderon, said hostages’ families planned to sleep outside the IDF headquarters Saturday night as an act of protest, urging the public to join.

The overnight protest, dubbed “Operation Kirya Cordon” by the hostages’ families, was set up outside the IDF headquarters’ main eastern entrance, on Begin Road. Smaller encampments were also set up outside two entrances on Kaplan Street, on the base’s south side, and outside an entrance on Shaul Hamelech Street, on the north side, just across from Hostages Square.

While the protest on Begin Street ends at around 10 p.m. most weeks, it was still going strong just before midnight on Saturday, with protesters gathered around a bonfire chanting: “The cabinet is responsible for the life of the hostages.”