Hamas released a video on Nov. 30 showing Israeli American man Edan Alexander alive in Hamas captivity somewhere in the Gaza Strip.
Alexander, 20, was taken hostage by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks across southern Israel.
In the new 3 1/2-minute video, Alexander is speaking in a mix of English and Hebrew. He begins the video by saying he has been held by Hamas for about 420 days, which, if accurate, means the video was recorded in recent days.
In the first half of the video, Alexander speaks in Hebrew, criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calling on Israeli citizens to “demonstrate every day and pressure the government.”
Speaking in English in the second half of the video, Alexander calls on President-elect Donald Trump to use his influence “to negotiate for our full freedom.”
Footage of Alexander sobbing and cowering in apparent fear is interspersed throughout his comments addressing Netanyahu and Trump. The video ends with a graphic of a draining hourglass and a ticking clock, along with the words “Time is Running Out.”
Yael Alexander, Edan Alexander’s mother, said the video has “shaken” her and her family.
“While it gives us hope, it also shows how difficult the situation is for Edan and the other hostages and how desperately they are crying out for us to rescue them,” she said at a rally in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Netanyahu has listed the return of all hostages as a primary objective of the ongoing Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. Hamas took about 250 people hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, of whom they released about 100 last year as part of a week-long cease-fire. Israeli forces have been able to recover a few additional hostages over the past year, but about 100 remain captive.
In May, U.S. President Joe Biden announced a framework for a phased cease-fire that would eventually entail the release of all remaining hostages and an end to the fighting. Efforts to implement this cease-fire framework have thus far failed.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu said in the conversation that he feels the suffering that Edan—and the hostages and their families—are enduring, and 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’s office said.
“The hostage video released today of American-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander is a cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own,” Savett said. “We have been in touch with Edan’s family. The war in Gaza would stop tomorrow and the suffering of Gazans would end immediately—and would have ended months ago—if Hamas agreed to release the hostages.
“President Biden and the United States will continue to work around the clock to secure the release of our citizens including through diplomatic efforts and by increasing pressure on Hamas terrorists through sanctions, law enforcement actions, and other measures,” Savett said on Nov. 30. “On behalf of the Alexanders and all the families of the hostages still being held by Hamas, we will never cease in our efforts to secure their immediate release.”
