Hamas' military wing released a propaganda video Saturday showing an Israeli American hostage.
It was the first video of its kind shared in months.
The undated video, posted on the secure messaging service Telegram, shows 20-year-old Edan Alexander. The message says Alexander has been held captive by Hamas for more than 420 days. If true, the video would have been taken this past week.
In the video – speaking in a mixture of Hebrew and English – Alexander speaks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying "you have neglected us."
He also addressed President-elect Donald Trump, asking him to use his "influence and the full power of the United States to negotiate for our freedom."
In a statement via the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters, Alexander's mother Yael Alexander said her son "represents all the living hostages who cannot make their voices heard, and this voice needs to reverberate and shake everyone!"
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, appearing on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday, called the video a "cruel reminder of the barbarity and the brutality of Hamas."
Sullivan noted that he thinks Hamas is "feeling the pressure" after Hezbollah cut a ceasefire deal with Israel last week, and after Hamas' top leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in October. The national security adviser said Hamas "may be looking anew" at the possibility of reaching a deal to end the fighting and return the hostages.
"The key actor right now holding the decision on the ceasefire is Hamas," Sullivan said.
Alexander grew up in New Jersey and was a soldier in the Israeli military when Hamas militants attacked on the morning of Oct. 7, 2023. The then 19-year-old was able to send a quick message to his mother amid the intense fighting around his base near the Gaza border.
He told her that despite having shrapnel embedded in his helmet from the explosions, he had managed to get to a protected area. After 7 a.m., his family lost contact, the Associated Press reported.
"He told me even though things were already getting dangerous around him. That was the last time I heard my son's voice. I cannot describe the pain of not knowing where your child is or how is he," Yael Alexander.
When a week-long ceasefire last November brought the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, some of the freed hostages said they had seen Alexander in captivity. Varda Ben Baruch, his grandmother, told the AP that the hostages told her Alexander kept his cool, encouraging them that everyone would be released soon.
