An Israeli-American hostage pleaded for US president-elect Donald Trump’s help in making a deal to secure captives in a video reportedly released by the Hamas militants.
In the video titled “Soon … Time is running out” posted by Hamas on Telegram, a pale-looking, 20-year-old Edan Alexander could be seen seated in a dark space against a wall. He identified himself and addressed his family, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Mr Trump.
“Please do not make the mistake [Joe] Biden has been doing,” he said. Mr Alexander added that he did not want to “end up dead like my fellow USA citizen, Hersh”, referring to slain American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg.
Mr Alexander, a soldier at the time of his abduction, was among the about 250 hostages taken to Gaza during the 7 October 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.
Yael Alexander, the mother of the hostage, said she was shaken by the video. It "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," his mother 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.
The Israeli prime minister on Saturday said the video was cruel psychological warfare and that he had told Mr Alexander’s family in a phone call that Israel was working tirelessly to bring the hostages home.
Mr Netanyahu has previously faced backlash from Israelis for failing to secure the release of the hostages more than one year after he launched a retaliatory war on Gaza. At least 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza due to Israel’s offensive, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run Strip.
US national security council spokesperson Sean Savett said 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”.
The Biden administration, in office until Mr Trump's 20 January inauguration, said it is working "around the clock" to secure the release of US 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," Mr Savett said. "This deal is on the table now."
The Hostages Families Forum urged the administrations of both Mr Biden and Mr Trump to step up efforts to secure a hostage release. "The hostages' lives hang by a thread," it said.
The 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.
Meanwhile, international aid agency Save the Children said a staff member was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s Khan Younis on Saturday. Ahmad Faisal Isleem Al-Qadi was the second member of the team to be killed in Gaza since the onset of the war, the group said.
He was among at least 17 people killed in Israeli strikes on Khan Younis on Saturday.
"Ahmad, who was deaf, will be remembered for his determination to help others, for his pride in his daughter, and for his ability to brighten others’ days," Save the Children said in a statement.
The war in Gaza has been the "deadliest on record for the killing" of UN and aid workers, with at least 337 reported killed since October 2023, it added.
