Hamas’ military wing released a propaganda video Saturday showing an Israeli-American hostage.
It was the first video of its kind to be shared in months.
The undated video, posted on the secure messaging service Telegram, shows 20-year-old Edan Alexander. The report says Alexander has been detained captured by Hamas for more than 420 days. If true, the video would have been made last week.
In the video – speaking in a mixture of Hebrew and English – Alexander speaks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and says: “You have neglected us.”
He also addressed newly elected President Donald Trump, asking him to use his “influence and the full power of the United States to negotiate for our freedom.”
In a statement through the Hostages and Missing Families Forum headquarters, Alexander’s mother, Yael Alexander, said her son was “represents all the living hostages who cannot make their voices heard, and this voice must resound and shake everyone!”
Alexander grew up in New Jersey and was a soldier in the Israeli army when Hamas militants attacked on the morning of October 7, 2023. The then 19-year-old was able to send a quick message to his mother amid heavy fighting around his base near the Gaza border. .
He told her that despite having shrapnel lodged in his helmet from the explosions, he had managed to reach a protected area. After 7 a.m., his family lost contact, the Associated Press reported.
“He told me even though things were getting dangerous around him. That was the last time I heard my son’s voice. I can’t describe the pain of not knowing where your child is or how he is doing.” goes,” said Yael Alexander. CBS New York in October.
When a week-long ceasefire last November brought the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, some of the released hostages said they had seen Alexander in captivity. Varda Ben Baruch, his grandmother, told the AP that the hostages told her that Alexander remained calm and encouraged them that everyone would be released soon.
Alexander’s father Adi Alexander told the story “CBS Mornings” in September that they are pushing Israeli and American leaders to agree to a ceasefire.
“We hope he holds out and that we come and get him,” Adi Alexander said. “He has to survive.”
Adi and Yael Alexander met with Presidents Biden and Trump in Washington earlier this month and implored them to work together to bring all the hostages home in one deal, the AP reported.
More than 250 people were kidnapped and 1,200 killed when Hamas militants crossed the border and launched a bloody attack on southern Israeli communities. Israel’s subsequent war against Hamas has since killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Saturday that he spoke to Alexander’s family after the release of the “brutal psychological warfare video.”
“The Prime Minister said in the conversation that he felt very clearly the pain that Edan and the hostages and their families are experiencing, and promised that Israel will work decisively and in every possible way to bring them home, along with all the hostages held in are in prison.” hands of the enemy,” the statement said.
The headquarters of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that the video “is definitive proof that despite all rumors, there are still alive hostages and they are suffering immensely.”
“A year after the first and only deal, it is clear to everyone: returning the hostages can only be done through a deal,” the group said. “After more than 420 days of continuous abuse, hunger and darkness, the urgency of bringing back all 101 hostages cannot be overstated.”