Freed Israeli soldier says Hamas let him pray, brought him a Torah in Gaza

An Israeli soldier recently released by Hamas said the group had allowed him to perform Jewish prayers and provided him with a Torah during his captivity in Gaza.

Matan Angrest, who was freed on Monday, told Israel's Channel 13 that he had asked his captors for tefillin (phylacteries worn by Jews during prayer), a (prayer book), and a Torah scroll.

He said Hamas supplied the items, which had been taken from places previously occupied by the Israeli army in Gaza.

Angrest added that he had prayed three times a day while he was held in tunnels and had survived several Israeli airstrikes that hit areas near where he was being held.

The treatment of detainees by Hamas's military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has often garnered public attention. In previous releases, freed captives were seen bidding farewell to the fighters who had guarded them, waving as they left.

The group has repeatedly said it worked to preserve the lives of captives and warned that Israel's "indiscriminate and bloody" bombardment of Gaza endangers them.

In the past two years, Israeli military operations in Gaza have contributed to the deaths of the 26 slain captives, who either died under bombardment or from the conditions of their captivity.

Hamas took around 251 captives during its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

One of the most notable incidents occurred in December 2023, when the Israeli army killed three Israeli captives who were waving white flags, later admitted by the Israeli army as a "mistake".

On 9 February 2024, the army said an investigation had suggested that a captive named Yossi Sharabi, from Kibbutz Be'eri near the Gaza border, was "likely killed" in an Israeli airstrike. The kibbutz had announced Sharabi's death a month earlier.

Since Monday, Hamas has released 20 Israeli captives alive and, by Wednesday evening, had handed over the bodies of 10 others as part of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

The group said it had required more time to recover the remaining bodies due to a lack of equipment, as Israel's intense bombardment of the enclave had caused large-scale destruction, making access to certain areas extremely dangerous or impossible.

Israel has released 250 Palestinians serving life sentences, along with 1,718 others detained in Gaza after 8 October 2023.

Images of the Israeli captives at their release earlier this week showed them smiling and clean, in stark contrast to the way Palestinian detainees had appeared.

Footage of Palestinian detainees released by Israel showed them looking exhausted and visibly worn down from long incarceration and abuse in Israeli prisons, where rights groups had reported physical violence, including rape, assault, and deprivation of basic needs such as food and medicine.

More than 10,000 Palestinians remain imprisoned in Israel, among them children and women, many held under "administrative detention", without charge or trial.

Backed by the United States, Israel's war on Gaza since 8 October 2023 has killed at least 67,913 people and wounded 170,134 others - most of them women and children.