Hamas military arm releases new video of Israeli hostage in Gaza

Demonstrators lift placards during an anti-government protest demanding action for the release of Israelis held hostage by Palestinian militants in Gaza since the October 2023 attacks, in Tel Aviv on November 30, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. Agence France-Presse

JERUSALEM — Hamas’s armed wing published a video Saturday of an American-Israeli hostage held in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

In the video, whose date cannot be verified, Edan Alexander addresses US President-elect Donald Trump in English and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Hebrew.

He calls on Israelis to put pressure on the government to secure the release of the hostages seized on October 7.

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“This video has upset me, but beyond the hope it gives us, it shows how bad the situation is for Edan and the other hostages and how much they are crying out and hoping to be saved now,” his mother, Yael Alexander, said during a speech at a rally for the hostages in Tel Aviv Saturday evening.

Telling the crowd she had spoken to Netanyahu, she added: “You must keep your promise and free them. This state is strong enough to end the war and bring them all back, including my Edan.”

In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said that during their call, the prime minister had “promised that Israel is determined to take every action to bring them back home, together with all of the hostages held by the enemy”.

Netanyahu also described the video’s release as “cruel psychological warfare”.

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In the United States, White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett called the video “a cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror”.

“The war in Gaza would stop tomorrow and the suffering of Gazans would end… if Hamas agreed to release the hostages,” Savett said in a statement.

The Hostage Families Forum campaign group, meanwhile, reiterated its calls for the hostages’ release.

“One year after the first and only deal, it’s clear to everyone: returning the hostages is only possible through a deal,” it said in a statement.

Second hostage video

Militants seized 251 hostages during the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, some of whom were already dead.

Ninety-seven are still being held, including 34 who have been confirmed dead but their bodies remain in Gaza.

During a brief truce between Israel and Hamas in November last year, 80 Israelis held by militants in Gaza were freed, in exchange for 240 Palestinians detained in Israeli jails.

Another 25 hostages, mostly Thai farm workers, were also released from captivity in Gaza.

Saturday’s video was released by the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and comes after Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militant group allied with Hamas, published clips of another Israeli hostage, Sasha Trupanov, earlier this month.

The October 7 attack resulted in 1,207 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 44,382 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.