CAIRO: The armed wing of Hamas said on Tuesday it had lost contact with the group holding captive soldier Edan Alexander in the Gaza Strip. Abu Ubaida, the armed wing’s spokesperson, said on the Telegram that it lost contact after the Zionist entity’s army attacked the place where they were holding Alexander, who is a New Jersey native and a 21-year-old soldier in the Zionist entity’s army.

Abu Ubaida did not say where in Gaza Alexander was purportedly held. The armed wing later released a video warning hostages families that their “children will return in black coffins with their bodies torn apart from shrapnel from your army”. Hamas has previously blamed the Zionist entity for the deaths of hostages held in Gaza, including as a direct result of military operations, while also acknowledging on at least one occasion that a hostage was killed by a guard. It said the guard had acted against instructions. There was no immediate response from the Zionist entity’s military to a request for comment on the Hamas statement about Alexander.

President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told reporters at the White House in March that gaining the release of Alexander, believed to be the last living American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, was a “top priority for us”. The Tikva Forum, a group representing some family members of those held in Gaza, had said earlier on Tuesday that Alexander was among up to 10 hostages who could be released by Hamas if a new ceasefire was reached, citing a conversation a day earlier between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the mother of another hostage. There was no immediate comment on that from Netanyahu’s office.

Hamas’ armed wing released a video on Saturday showing Alexander alive, in which he criticized the Zionist entity’s government for failing to secure his release. Alexander appeared to be speaking under duress in the footage, making frequent hand gestures as he criticized Netanyahu’s government. AFP was unable to determine when the video was filmed. Alexander was serving in an elite infantry unit on the Gaza border when he was abducted by Palestinian militants during their October 2023 attack. The soldier, who turned 21 in captivity, was born in Tel Aviv and grew up in the US state of New Jersey, returning to the Zionist entity after high school to join the army.

The release of Alexander was at the center of earlier talks held between Hamas leaders and US hostage negotiator Adam Boehler last month. Hamas released 38 hostages under a ceasefire that began on January 19. In March, the entity’s military resumed its ground and aerial offensive on Gaza, abandoning the ceasefire after Hamas rejected proposals to extend the truce without ending the war. Zionist entity officials say that the offensive will continue until the remaining 59 hostages are freed and Gaza is demilitarized. Hamas insists it will free hostages only as part of a deal to end the war and has rejected demands to lay down its arms.

‘Gesture of goodwill’

Hamas said Monday it had received a new truce offer from the Zionist entity that foresees the release of 10 living hostages, starting with Alexander, in exchange for a 45-day ceasefire. A Hamas official said the proposal called for Alexander’s release on the first day of the ceasefire as a “gesture of goodwill”. It was delivered to the group’s delegation in Cairo by Egyptian officials over the weekend and a senior Hamas official told AFP the group would “most likely” respond within 48 hours. Another Hamas official said the entity had also demanded that the Palestinian militants disarm to secure an end to the Gaza war, but said this crossed a “red line”.

Netanyahu visited northern Gaza on Tuesday, his office announced, as the military kept up the offensive it resumed on March 18. The entity has also cut off all aid to the Gaza Strip since March 2 to pressure Hamas. The United Nations has warned that Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is spiraling out of control, with no aid having entered the territory for a month and a half. “The humanitarian situation is now likely the worst it has been in the 18 months since the outbreak of hostilities,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. — Agencies