JERUSALEM, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Palestinian militant group Hamas released a video of an Israeli-American hostage on Saturday, in which he pleads for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to secure his release.
Yael Alexander, the mother of hostage Edan Alexander, said she was shaken by the 3-1/2-minute video, which showed the 20-year-old captive looking pale, seated in a dark space against a wall. He identified himself and addressed his family, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump.
The video “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.
Netanyahu said in a statement that the video was cruel psychological warfare and that he had told Alexander’s family in a phone call that Israel was working tirelessly to bring the hostages home. Trump’s transition team could not be immediately reached for comment.
Alexander, a soldier at the time of his abduction, was taken to Gaza during the Oct. 7, 2023 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.
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Article URL : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-publishes-video-us-israeli-hostage-gaza-2024-11-30/