Hamas has posted a harrowing video showing a weeping American-Israeli hostage held captive for 420 days.
In the footage, 20-year-old Edan Alexander identified himself and addressed his family, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-elect Donald Trump.
A pale-looking Alexander can be heard pleading for Trump to secure his release. He said: ‘Soon… time is running out.’
He added: ‘The fear is at its peak, and we are dying a thousand times every day that passes, and no one feels for us.
‘The people of Israel: Do not neglect us. We want to return home with a full mind. Fear and isolation are killing us. Please do not forget us.’
The video later cut to footage of Alexander crying.
Addressing Trump, Alexander urged to ‘use your influence and the full power of the United States to negotiate for our freedom’, before adding: ‘I do not want to end up dead like my fellow US citizen Hersh [Goldberg-Polin].’
The American-Israeli hostage also said in a message for Netanyahu that he ‘neglected’ the hostages.
Hamas has posted a harrowing video showing a weeping American-Israeli hostage held captive for 420 days.
In the footage, 20-year-old Edan Alexander identified himself and addressed his family, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-elect Donald Trump
Pictured is Edan Alexander before he was captured by Hamas terrorists more than a year ago
Alexander’s message ends with him telling his parents and grandparents to be strong and that it is only ‘a matter of time until this nightmare ends.’
His mother Yael Alexander said she was shaken by the 3-1/2-minute video, which showed her son seated in a dark space against a wall.
The video ‘gives us hope, but it also shows how difficult it is for Edan and for the other hostages, and how much they are crying out and praying for us to rescue them,’ Yael Alexander said at a Tel Aviv rally calling for the hostages’ release.
‘My dear, beloved Edan, we miss you painfully,’ she said before she called on Israel’s leaders to end the war in Gaza and make a deal with Hamas to release the hostages.
Netanyahu said in a statement that the video was cruel psychological warfare and that he had told Alexander’s family in a phone call that Israel was working tirelessly to bring the hostages home.
Trump’s transition team could not be immediately reached for comment. Alexander, a soldier at the time of his abduction, was taken to Gaza during the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.
Around half of the 101 foreign and Israeli hostages still held incommunicado in Gaza are believed to be alive.
Hamas leaders were expected to arrive in Cairo on Saturday for ceasefire talks with Egyptian officials to explore ways to reach a deal that could secure the release of hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners.
The fresh bid comes after Washington said this week it was reviving efforts toward that goal.
‘I do not want to end up dead like my fellow US citizen Hersh [Goldberg-Polin],’ Alexander said
Varda Ben Baruch, whose grandson Edan Alexander is held hostage in the Gaza Strip by Hamas militants, poses for a portrait at home in Tel Aviv, Israel, November 14, 2024
People attend a candlelight vigil accompanied by prayers for killed Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin on September 1, 2024
The Biden administration, in office until Trump’s January 20 inauguration, said it is working ‘around the clock’ to secure the release of U.S. citizens held hostage by Hamas.
‘We have a critical opportunity to conclude the deal to release the hostages, stop the war, and surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza,’ said White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett. ‘This deal is on the table now.’
The Hostages Families Forum urged the administrations of both outgoing President Joe Biden and Trump to step up efforts to secure a hostage release.
‘The hostages’ lives hang by a thread,’ it said.