Gaza City, Palestinian Territories – Hamas’s armed wing released a video on Saturday showing a hostage alive in Gaza, whom Israeli media widely identified as Israeli-American Edan Alexander.
AFP was unable to immediately verify the authenticity of the footage or determine when it was filmed.
In the video, the hostage says he wants to return home to celebrate the holidays.
Israel is currently marking Passover, a holiday that commemorates the biblical liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
The hostage appears to be speaking under duress in the video, making frequent hand gestures as he criticises Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for failing to secure his release.
The video was released hours after Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that Israel’s military had seized the new Morag axis between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis.
Katz also outlined plans to expand the military’s ongoing offensive across much of the Gaza Strip.
In a separate statement earlier Saturday, Hamas said Israel’s Gaza operations endangered not only Palestinian civilians but also the remaining hostages.
The offensive not only “kills defenceless civilians but also makes the fate of the occupation’s prisoners (hostages) uncertain”, Hamas said.
During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian militants took 251 hostages.
Fifty-eight hostages remain in captivity, including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.
During a recent ceasefire that ended on March 18 when Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza, militants released 33 hostages, among them eight bodies.
