Hamas says fate of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander unknown after strike

GAZA CITY: Hamas said Saturday that the fate of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander remained unknown, while the body of a guard assigned to him had been recovered from the site of a recent Israeli strike.

“We managed to retrieve the body of a martyr who was tasked with securing the prisoner Edan Alexander, but the fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” Hamas’s armed wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the group announced it had “lost contact” with the fighter unit holding Alexander following an Israeli air strike on their location in the Gaza Strip.

“We are trying to protect all the prisoners (hostages) and preserve their lives despite the brutality of the aggression… but their lives are in danger due to the criminal bombing operations carried out by the enemy army,” Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’ wing, said in a statement on Saturday.

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Last week the Brigades released a video showing Alexander alive, in which he criticised the Israeli government for failing to secure his release.

Alexander appeared to be speaking under duress in the video, making frequent hand gestures as he criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

AFP was unable to determine when the video was filmed.

Alexander was serving as a soldier in an elite infantry unit on the Gaza border when he was abducted by Palestinian fighters during their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

The soldier, who turned 21 in captivity, was born in Tel Aviv and grew up in the US state of New Jersey, returning to Israel after high school to join the army.

Out of the 251 hostages taken on October 7, 58 remain in captivity, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel resumed its intense air strikes and ground offensive across Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire that had largely halted the fighting.

Since then, at least 1,783 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

The war in Gaza broke out following Hamas’ October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,281 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s military offensive since then has killed at least 51,157 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry. The UN considers these figures reliable.