The Hamas terror group on Saturday released a propaganda video showing signs of life from hostage Edan Alexander, 20, in the first video of its kind in months.
Alexander’s family permitted the video to be published in Israeli media.
The three-and-a-half-minute-long video is not dated, though Alexander states that he has been held for over 420 days. If true, it would have been filmed this week.
Alexander, a US citizen, is a soldier who was stationed near the Gaza Strip on the morning of October 7 when he was taken captive by Hamas, along with 250 other hostages. Hamas also killed over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, during that attack, which sparked the ongoing war that the Israeli military is fighting against Hamas in Gaza.
Alexander was born in Tel Aviv, grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey, and joined Golani as a lone soldier after graduating from high school in 2022.
Related: Grandmother of US-Israeli held in Gaza urges Biden, Trump to cooperate on hostage deal
In the clip, a gaunt-looking Alexander identifies himself and calls on the Israeli government to bring him home. In the second half of the video, Alexander speaks in English and calls on the incoming Trump administration to work for his release.
Alexander, speaking directly to Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, said he is “disappointed” that the government has “neglected” the hostages who remain in captivity.
“Do not neglect us. We want to return home,” he added. “Fear and isolation is killing us. Do not forget us.”
“It is unreasonable that we pay the price for a mistake made by the government,” said Alexander, and called on Israelis to “go out and demonstrate every day and pressure the government.”
Speaking in English to president-elect Donald Trump, Alexander asked that he “use your influence and the full power of the United States to negotiate for our freedom.”
Former US President Donald Trump poses for photos with family members of Hamas hostage Edan Alexander, after visiting the gravesite of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in New York, October 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
“Please don’t make the same mistake [US President Joe] Biden has been making. The weapons he has sent are now killing us, the unlawful siege is now starving us,” he added.
“I do not want to end up dead like my fellow US citizen Hersh [Goldberg-Polin],” he said.
Speaking to his family, Alexander said that “every day that passes, the pain increases.”
“I miss you very much, Every day, I pray to see you soon. Please be strong, its only a matter of time before this nightmare ends,” he concluded.
Yael Alexander, the mother of hostage Edan Alexander, a lone soldier from New Jersey who holds both American and Israeli citizenship, speaks at the rally for a hostage deal in Tel Aviv, May 18, 2024. (Hostages and Missing Families Forum/Adar Eyal)
Yael Alexander, Edan’s mother, spoke at a rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square hours after the video was published, and told the crowd that Netanyahu promised her in a phone call an hour before the rally that “the conditions are ripe” to bring all the hostages home.
“This is not a Hollywood movie,” said Yael Alexander after the video played for the crowd. “This is the bad movie we have been living for 421 days since October 7.”
After 421 days “when I hadn’t heard my Edan,” she said. “the film we received this afternoon shook me and my family. Along with the hope it gives, it also shows how hard are the conditions of Edan and the other hostages. And how they are shouting and pleading that we save them. Now.”
Yael said her son “speaks for all the living hostages who cannot make their voices heard. And this voice must echo, and shake up everybody.”
Yael Alexander, mother of hostage Edan Alexander, speaks in Hostages Square, November 30, 2024 (Paulina Patimer, Pr-Democracy Protest Movement)
“My beloved Edan,” she said, addressing him directly, “I want to tell you that after your plea, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called me an hour ago, gave me strength, and promised me that now, after there is an arrangement in Lebanon, the conditions are ripe to free you all and bring you all back home.”
She added: “Edan, that is also the will of the people. The people are with you and understand that [the return of you all] is total victory.”
Yael Alexander then urged Netanyahu, “in my name and that of my family and of all of Israel, … to stand by your promise to me. Because all eyes are now on you, hoping that you will make the courageous decision. And especially be strong in the face of those in your government who oppose a deal, because most of the people support you,” she says, in an apparent reference to far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
“Be strong,” she urged Netanyahu, “like my Edan who has survived there for so long. Be strong.”
Varda Ben Baruch, the hostage’s grandmother, who is observant, said she didn’t hear about the video of her grandson until after the Sabbath ended at sundown.
Paraphrasing Havdala, the prayer recited at the Sabbath’s end, she pleaded for her grandson’s safety.
She also addressed Netanyahu: “Be brave. Be strong. Don’t be afraid to do anything that will bring home all the hostages and our Edan.”
She then led the crowd in a chant: “A deal — now!”
Relatives of the Hamas hostages hold a press conference in Tel Aviv on November 30, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
After the release of the video, the Prime Minster’s Office said that “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke this evening with the family of Edan Alexander, who was kidnapped in Gaza by the terrorist organization Hamas. This follows the release of the brutal psychological warfare video in which Edan gave an important and moving sign of life.”
“The Prime Minister said in the conversation that he feels very much the anguish that Edan and the hostages and their families are going through, and assured that Israel is working resolutely and in every way to return them home, along with all the hostages who are in the hands of the enemy,” the PMO said.
In a statement accompanying the video of 20-year-old Alexander, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that the footage is “conclusive proof of all the statements and rumors — there are living hostages and they are suffering. A lot. We are their only hope!”
“Hamas will not be defeated for as long as it holds even a single hostage, alive or dead. There will be no revival and there will be no victory until all 101 hostages are returned home,” the forum added.
Yael Alexander, mother of hostage Edan Alexander, addresses the 2,000-strong crowd at Marching and Running for their Lives in Central Park, in New York, January 14, 2024. (Jordana Horn/Times of Israel)
Hamas has previously issued similar videos of hostages the terror group is holding, in what Israel says is deplorable psychological warfare. However, the terror group has not published such videos in months.
Most Israeli media outlets do not carry the video clips unless given permission by relatives.
In mid-November, Palestinian Islamic Jihad released multiple propaganda videos showing Israeli-Russian hostage Sasha Trufanov, which his family authorized media outlets to publicize.
In one of the videos, Trufanov described a shortage of food, water, electricity, and basic hygiene products in the Gaza Strip.
Like in several other hostage videos released by terror groups, Trufanov urged citizens to demand the government reach a deal for their release, and said that the Israel Defense Forces operation only puts them in more danger.
Hostage Sasha Trufanov in a video released by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group on November 13, 2024. (Screengrab)
Trufanov was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, when Hamas killed or kidnapped 117 of its 400 residents. Trufanov was taken hostage along with three members of his family — grandmother Irena Tati, mother Lena Trufanova, and his girlfriend, Sapir Cohen.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Four hostages were released before the November deal, eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
