The families of soldiers who are held hostage by Hamas in Gaza said in a speech on Thursday before meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "Our sons have been abandoned and are being held as corpses by Hamas."
The parents of the soldiers who are held hostage in Gaza are holding a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, 174 days after the October 7 massacre, after making numerous requests.
At the meeting, the parents are expected to demand an explanation of how the prime minister plans to return their children home.
Thursday morning, the soldiers' parents made a special statement from the Tel Hashomer recruiting office before the meeting with the PM.
Anat Angrest, the mother of hostage Matan Angrest, and Orna Neutra, the mother of captive Omer Neutra, read a speech on behalf of all the members of the families of the kidnapped soldiers.
She began her speech by saying, "Morning 174—Every household in the State of Israel knows the feeling of enlisting a child into the army. The pride, the fears, the anticipation of weekends when the child in uniform stands at the door, and we mothers are blessed with a tight hug, renewed strength, and become the best cooks. And when the child returns to base, there are several WhatsApp messages until they respond, reassuring us that they are there but in good spirits.”
She continued, “We have no one to send WhatsApps to, no one to answer on the other end. We received an automatic notification that they left the family group due to inactivity. My last correspondence with my son is on the cursed morning of October 7 when he wrote to me - ‘Mom, everything is good take care of yourself’ with three hearts, and since then, the messages have not been read...they are kidnapped in Gaza.”
Omer Neutra, an Israeli-American from New York, was captured along the Israel-Gaza border to Gaza. He had deferred studying at Binghamton University to serve in the IDF.
Staff Sergeant Matan Angrest, from Kiryat Bialik in Israel, was a tank driver in the Armored Corps and is scheduled to be released from military service in April.
The mothers share the contributions of their sons
“Our sons were abandoned along the path of defending the state. Most of them paid with their lives and are held as rotting corpses by the enemy. We have testimonies from the returned soldiers who survived, held as severely wounded, in inhumane conditions, subjected to daily torture and suffering underground, in small cages, without daylight, starving, in filth, and diseases in hazardous sanitary conditions,” the mothers said.
“Among the abducted soldiers are those who left their comfortable lives in the United States and came to Israel to enlist. They were not obligated.”
They also highlighted the courage of those “who were deployed without weapons, in dilapidated vehicles, and were not prepared for combat, yet they helped and assisted the wounded in the field even when they knew it would cost them their lives.”
No minister took the initiative to contact them, according to the families. They pleaded with PM Netanyahu, “Try to imagine your young sons held by the devil for half a year... after half a year, everyone, including the young men, is a person!”
They then addressed the prime minister directly: “Our sons must return with all the abducted alive and well home. They have no time for partial gestures or deals. Enough wasting time!”
Angrest and Neutra appealed to the prime minister, “Exactly a week ago, the entire nation of Israel participated in a global cry and Shema Yisrael. Everyone understands that we are dealing with matters of life and death and that the commandment of redeeming captives is one of the most important commandments. Is it clear to you, too?”
“Our sons represent the entire spectrum of the people of Israel and the Land of Israel—religious and secular, right and left, Jews and Muslims—The People's Army. We educated our children on values of mutual responsibility that are the foundation of our society.”
They concluded, “For us families, 174 days have no day and no night, and certainly no respite. Prime Minister, you are responsible for the return of our sons. The commitment is yours.”