Released Hostage Matan Angrest Asked Hamas Captors For Tefillin And A Siddur

Two days after being freed from nearly two years of brutal torture in Hamas captivity, 22-year-old IDF tanker Matan Angrest shared a chilling yet uplifting account of his survival in Gaza’s tunnels.

Angrest was taken prisoner during the fierce battle in Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023, after his tank was struck. “It was clear to me that I’d get out of captivity,” he said. “The place I was in was bombed, but I wasn’t hurt; it was a series of miracles.” He described how tefillah, emunah, and unwavering hope sustained him through the torment.

Speaking from Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, where he is receiving treatment for his extensive injuries, Angrest met with Tzili Schneider, founder and CEO of Kesher Yehudi, who presented him with a new pair of tefillin.

Matan’s mother, Anat, said her son suffered “very severe torture,” including burns to his right arm and fingers, harm to his eyesight, and unbearable conditions. His father, Hagai, added, “They treated him like a captured soldier. His condition was very bad; they tortured him. He has a lot of injuries that occurred during the seven months after his abduction. He was taken from place to place, sometimes with seven other men in one pit, and he contended with isolation, starvation, and constant fear.”

Despite the suffering, Angrest refused to let go of his faith. Just a month after his abduction, still reeling from his wounds and trauma, he demanded from his captors a siddur, tefillin, and a Tanach. “I insisted on putting on tefillin and getting a prayer book and Tanach,” he recounted. “I demanded from the captors to receive those things.” In a remarkable turn, the Hamas guards complied, and a senior official personally brought him the siddur.

From that day on, tefillah became his lifeline in the darkness. “As part of my routine, I prayed three times a day—morning, afternoon, and night,” Angrest said. “It protected me, it gave me hope.” His emunah became the force that kept him alive through endless days of pain and uncertainty.

Tzili Schneider, who heard his story firsthand, called him “a true hero who held on to his Yiddishkeit even in gehinnom. It was incredible to see Matan’s pure faith—how, amid the horrors of Hamas’s tunnels, he found immense inner strength and reconnected to faith and trust in the Creator.”