The Hamas terrorist organization published on Saturday propaganda footage showing a sign of life of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, who is still held captive in the Gaza Strip.
The terror group published the video as part of its ongoing efforts to carry out psychological terror.
Earlier, a teaser of the video was released by the group with the captions "Soon" and "Time is running out."
Statements from the Alexander family
Alexander's family has not allowed the publishing of the video, but issued a statement saying: "Our Edan, a lone soldier who immigrated to Israel and enlisted in the Golani Brigade to defend the country and its citizens, is still being held captive by Hamas.
"So when you sit down to mark Passover, remember that this is not a holiday of freedom as long as Edan and the other 58 hostages are not home," they added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Alexander's parents following the publication of the propaganda video, saying that he sympathizes with their pain, and informed them that a tremendous effort is currently underway to bring back Edan and the other 58 still held captive.
Not long after the Hamas propaganda video was published, crowds gathered at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to commemorate Passover Seder together and support the families of hostages still held captive.
Two days before Hamas publishing the video, the New York Times reported that US representatives held direct talks with Hamas in Qatar in a last-ditch effort to secure Alexander's release, so that that US President Donald Trump could have presented the success to release in his speech to Congress last month, but the two sides had missed the deadline for an agreement.
This marks the second time that Hamas published a propaganda video of Alexander, as they last did so in November of last year, also with captions "Soon" and "Time is running out," where Alexander speaks in the video in a mix of Hebrew and English. That video begins with Alexander introducing himself and stating that he has been a prisoner of Hamas for over 420 days. Hamas's publication of the second video on Saturday marks 554 days that he has been held captive.
Alexander's parents found out the publication of the first video in a phone call from an Israeli government representative back in November. The father, Adi, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview that "It was very emotional and disturbing, but we were happy to see him after a year that we didn’t see our son.”
Alexander is reportedly being held in an underground tunnel without air or sunlight and is severely malnourished and underweight due to a lack of food, N12 reported last month, citing other released hostages' testimonies.
The released hostages added that Alexander, a soldier who was kidnapped in IDF uniform, was treated much more harshly by his captors than civilian hostages.
Previous efforts to release Alexander
Nearly two weeks after the N12 report, the US delivered a message to Hamas via Qatari intermediaries in an effort to bring about Alexander's release, according to Axios.
A security source revealed to the Post late last month that Israel has demanded 10 living hostages in addition to Alexander in the first phase of a new 40-day ceasefire hostage deal.
Hannah Sarisohn and Amichai Stein contributed to this report.
