Hamas releases propaganda video showing Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander

Hamas’ military wing released a propaganda video Saturday showing an Israeli-American hostage.

It was the first video of its kind shared in months.

The undated video, posted on the secure messaging service Telegram, shows 20-year-old Edan Alexander. The message says that Alexander was detained Captivity of Hamas for more than 420 days. If true, the video would have been taken last week.

In the video – in a mix of Hebrew and English – Alexander speaks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and says: “They have neglected us.”

He also addressed President-elect Donald Trump, urging 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 “represents all the living hostages who cannot make their voice heard, and that voice must resonate and shock everyone!”

National security adviser Jake Sullivan, appearing on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday, called the video a “grisly reminder of Hamas’ barbarism and brutality.”

Sullivan noted that he believes Hamas is “feeling the pressure” after Hezbollah suffered a stroke ceasefire agreement with Israel last week and after Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in October. The national security adviser said Hamas “may be re-examining” the possibility of reaching an agreement to end the fighting and return the hostages.

“The main actor deciding the ceasefire right now is Hamas,” Sullivan said.

Alexander grew up in New Jersey He was a soldier in the Israeli military when Hamas militants attacked on the morning of October 7, 2023. The then 19-year-old was able to send a short message to his mother amid the heavy fighting around his base near the Gaza border.

He told her that he managed to get to a sheltered area despite having shrapnel in his helmet from the explosions. His family lost contact after 7 a.m., the Associated Press reported.

“He told me even though things were already becoming dangerous around him. That was the last time I heard my son’s voice. “I cannot describe the pain of not knowing where your child is or how he is doing,” Yael Alexander said 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 had kept a cool head and encouraged them that everyone would be released soon.

Alexander’s father Adi Alexander said “CBS Mornings” in September that they pressure Israeli and American leaders into a ceasefire agreement.

“We hope that he holds out and that we get him,” said Adi Alexander. “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 a single deal, according to the AP.

More than 250 people were kidnapped and 1,200 killed as Hamas militants crossed the border and launched a bloody attack on communities in southern Israel. Israel’s subsequent war against Hamas has since killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.

Netanyahu’s office said Saturday that he had spoken to Alexander’s family following the release of the “brutal psychological warfare video.”

“The Prime Minister said in the conversation that he feels very well the torment that Edan and the hostages and their families are going through, and promised that Israel is working with determination and in every possible way to bring them home, along with all the hostages inside into the hands of the enemy,” the statement said.

US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said the White House was in contact with the Alexander family. He said in a statement Saturday that the propaganda video was “a cruel reminder of Hamas’ terror against citizens of several countries, including our own.”

“The war in Gaza would end tomorrow and the suffering of the people of Gaza would end immediately – and would have ended months ago – if Hamas had agreed to release the hostages,” Savett said. “She has refused to do this, but as the president said last week, we have a crucial opportunity to finalize the agreement to release the hostages, end the war and increase humanitarian aid to Gaza. This agreement is now on the table.”

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum headquarters said in a statement that the video was “clear evidence that, despite rumors, there are living hostages and they are suffering greatly.”

“One year after the first and only deal, it is clear to everyone: repatriation of the hostages is only possible through a deal,” the group said. “After more than 420 days of continuous abuse, starvation and darkness, the urgency of bringing all 101 hostages home cannot be overstated.”