Israel does not even talk about the hostages, said the mother of the Bulgarian citizen in Gaza

« In order to return all the hostages, we have to stop the war, make a deal, have negotiations, to return them, to treat or bury them, » said Anat Angres, whose mother was born in Bulgaria. «  » Hamas has to leave Gaza … But it’s time to stop the war, « said Anat Angres, the mother of kidnapped Matan Angres, reminding that he is also a Bulgarian citizen.

Anat Angres and Vicky Cohen, the mother of another serviceman taken as a hostage in Gaza, spoke to a group of journalists from Bulgarian media, including Dnevnik visited Israel this week. The meeting with them was days after Israeli-American citizen Eden Alexander was released by the group, and the decision sparked different reactions and comments from critical power figures about the risk of the American to prioritize to the other hostages, despite the breath of the Israeli society, which gives the rescue. There are nuances between their two political positions, but they both expect an agreement with Hamas to release the hostages and point out the US President Donald Trump in this direction.

One of them also expressed concerns – shared by some in the army – by the effect of expanding the gas operation on hostages, approved by the cabinet in early May.

Two days later, after strikes and land maneuvers, unequivocally pointing to the beginning of this new offensive, the Israeli defense forces announced this morning that they were mastering strategic areas of Gaza in an attempt to release the hostages and destroy Hamas at the same time.

« In the tank they found a Rubik cube »

Matan Angres, one of Anat’s four children, is a military. He wrote to his family in the midst of the Hamas attack on October 7, when he was on the border with a gas, near a military base in Nosal Oz; He says everything is fine. « He said we would talk later. I didn’t know it was in this situation. He wrote nothing. But we released the TV and we understood what was going on. I wrote him the next message around 8am. He didn’t see him at all. »

Shortly before this exchange of messages, he traveled the area with a tank when his team notices how hundreds of fighters (including, however, will be later, there are also residents unrelated to Hamas) invaded Israel to reach their base. They try to protect the base, but the rocket hits the tank. Later, a rocket hit the tank and everyone died in the Matan Angres team. The bodies of two of the team were removed from the tank, lifeless; Matan is abducted. « He went through a very brutal lynch. In Gaza, we know from the testimonies of the trials that he was tormented and questioned harshly because he was a soldier. » Anat showed a poster with his face, with bruises, with visible traces of violence.

Angel Petrov

That his condition is severe, he also shows a propaganda video published by Hamas – and accessible with the permission of the family, which shows the injuries on his face, the fixed hand.

« There is a » Hamas « , which is our enemy, but there is also a government here that we believe is not doing everything possible to bring them home, » said Vicky Cohen, the mother of another kidnapped, Nimrod Cohen, also participated in the meeting. A technical problem in the tank where Nimrod Cohen is, on the border not far from the base near Nir Oz, facilitates the Hamas fighters to control it and get it and other military from the machine.

Vicky Cohen’s life rolls over this day: her family, who has two more children (Nimrod’s twin sister and older brother) begins a daily battle to get her son out of the tunnels under the strip, where he is kept isolated for 17 months. He describes it as a silent, sensitive, shy man who loves the nature and cube of Rubik. In his tank, he is found in a cube – ordered, but burned. « He liked to throw his clothes on the floor. His room was always scattered. When I see his room so clean and everything in the same place for so many days, my heart is broken. »

Angel Petrov

« Matan chose it »

« And he’s a narrow boy, » Anton Angres said to his son Matan. « Likes volunteering, to help. When he gets home on weekends, he always plays football with my other children. He loves Macabi Haifa. He never argues with anyone. He’s so mature. My best friend. He waited to finish the army to go on a trip together. We couldn’t do it, because he was going to be. His siblings.

« For myself, I can say: yes, » said, asked if she was feeling abandoned. « Other civilians of his age came back, » she continued. The photo in front of her was from the propaganda video whose publication agreed the family. Why? She decided it after the last hostage release. « My boy was not included simply because he was a military. I decided that his story should be published, everyone to hear, about this situation, every mother who sent his boy in the aria that if it became a situation, the government does not return the hostages. Trump does not, not the government. »

« And Alexander was released by Trump, not our government. »

However, asked what she would say to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, if she was in the room, she replied, « I want to tell him that Matan chose him. Matan believed in it. We are a government that supports this government. I think Matan thinks how much time he resisted the agreement that will free it. »

« We cannot recover as a society »

« I have the feeling that the government has betrayed us because our sons are still captured only for personal interests. We are upset and we are angry. We can do nothing: only to ask, to ask for help from other governments, from the American, from Trump, » said Vicky Cohen, who sees the congregation, see political motive As a consequence of the army’s operations in Gaza and fears the expansion of the offensive (started less than a day after this conversation). He even assumed that if the situation continued, the election and the process against Prime Minister Netanyahu would be postponed, and that is his interest, « not desired by the majority. »

« We believe and rely on Trump that it will help us, not our premiere. How did we get to this situation? He cannot imagine a person that he will get there: praying to our government to stop the war and return our sons. It must be the greatest priority. at risk. « 

In other words, she trusts Trump more than her government? « Absolutely. »

« We know that Hamas wants him, that the American people and Trump put pressure. Only the prime minister insists that it does not be done right so that the coalition does not break down, » Vicky Cohen continued. « It is better for both sides to stop war, this is the only way to get home. »

« All we do is not enough »

The hostage forum was created immediately after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023; On October 8, families of people in the unknown were found, growing up for days in a network of hundreds of volunteers and activists – from lawyers to media strategists and social workers. They gather strength at a time when institutions absorbed by the horror on October 7 can hardly offer support, and relatives have no one to turn to.

« We do everything we can, all over the world, to talk about Mathan and other hostages, to help us talk to those who are capable of influencing Hamas, Qatar and Egypt to release the hostages, » said Anat Angres.

« We feel some despair, because everything we do is not enough to bring them back, » said Vicky Cohen.

More about the mood, the pain, the anxiety in Israel, while negotiations with Hamas resume, power seeks a way out of the situation under increasing pressure, and the operation in Gaza expands after 19 months of war, read next week in Dnevnik.