Hamas claims it lost communication with group holding Omri Miran, Matan Angrest
The terror group also called on Israel to halt air missions for 24 hours to save the hostages from danger.
Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades claimed that it lost communication with the group holding hostages Matan Angrest and Omri Miran as a result of Israeli operations in Gaza in a Sunday statement.
The terror group said that it lost contact with the two hostages within the last 48 hours due to the “barbaric military operations” in Gaza.
Hamas then called on Israel to "immediately retreat to the south of Street 8 and stop air sorties for 24 hours starting at 18:00 this evening," until Hamas could attempt to rescue the two hostages.
Last week, the terror group's military wing, the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, stated that it would not concern itself with the lives of the hostages in Gaza so long as Israel's campaign against the terror group continued, CNN reported at the time.
“Your prisoners are distributed within the neighborhoods of Gaza City, and we will not be concerned for their lives as long as Netanyahu has decided to kill them," the al-Qassam Brigades stated.
The terror group asserted that so long as the IDF's Operation Gideon's Chariots II, the IDF operation to seize control of Gaza City, continued, Israel would not receive any of its hostages.
Who are Omri Miran and Matan Angrest?
Omri Miran was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz in front of his family on October 7. The Miran family authorized the release of a Hamas propaganda video in April of Omri.
"I haven't been happy for a year and a half," he said.
"I really miss my girls, wife, my whole family, and my friends," he continued, putting his head in his hands. "The situation here is very difficult, very difficult for us."
In February, the family stated that they had received a sign of life from him from a separate hostage who returned in an earlier deal.
"One of the kidnapped who returned in one of the last exchanges said that he was with Omri in the tunnels and apartments until July. It is not clear why they were separated at that stage. Overall, his condition is fine. Apparently, he is physically fine," Nadav Miran, Omri's brother, told Walla.
Matan Angrest is an IDF soldier who was kidnapped by the Gaza border on October 7. His family has reported that he is seriously injured and underwent torture during his captivity.
"After the meeting with the prime minister, three months ago, after he asked Gal Hirsch if Matan was injured, we understood we were in trouble and needed to work much harder," his father, Hagai Angrest, told 103FM in June.
The Angrest family then called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to up efforts to realease Matan.
"We realized there was some kind of failure, it can’t be that the prime minister didn’t know our son was injured, so we dug deeper," he said, adding, "We started interrogating and discovered they hadn't shared things with us, citing privacy issues. We didn’t understand what privacy meant — it’s our son."
"He underwent electrocution, he lost consciousness several times, so they shocked him, he went through torture, electric shocks, various fractures inside. Two days after we were with the prime minister, a Hamas video was released. The report we received from the intelligence services was very lenient, and something didn’t match up with what we saw."
Posted Sep 28, 2025, 1:31 PM UTC