Hamas says it has “lost contact” with the group of fighters holding an Israeli-American hostage captive in Gaza following an Israeli strike on their location.
The 21-year-old soldier, Edan Alexander, has appeared in videos released by the group in recent days.
Israel had asked for him to be released on day one of a new 45-day ceasefire proposal put forward last week which has been rejected by Hamas.
Hamas on Tuesday did not indicate when contact had been lost and has not produced any evidence for their claim. Israel regularly asserts it avoids hitting locations where it believes hostages are being held.
“We announce that we have lost contact with the group holding soldier Edan Alexander following a direct strike on their location,” Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said in a statement.
“We are still trying to reach them at this moment,” he added.
Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s 2023 attack, 59 remain in the enclave, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.
Five of the hostages in Gaza are believed to be US citizens and Alexander was thought to be the only one still alive.
Hamas later on Tuesday also released a video addressed to the families of the remaining hostages, warning that they would return in coffins if Israel continued its military offensive in Gaza.
On Saturday, Hamas had released a video of Alexander alive in which he pleads for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump to negotiate his release.
Alexander was part of an Israeli proposal for a 45-day ceasefire that would involve “the release of half of the hostages in the first week of the agreement,” a Hamas official told AFP. The official said the proposal called for Alexander’s release on the first day as a “gesture of goodwill”.
A two-month ceasefire at the start of the year saw Hamas release 33 hostages in return for the release of 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and aid and goods entering the strip.
After negotiations for a second phase unravelled, Israel resumed its offensive on 18 March.
Born in Tel Aviv but raised in New Jersey, Alexander was serving in an elite infantry unit on the border with Gaza when he was captured by Hamas militants during the 7 October attack.
His father, Adi Alexander, had questioned Netanyahu’s actions in an interview on Monday with US outlet NewsNation, asking: “How do you plan to get hostages out without ending this war and without committing to the second phase of this deal?”
Hamas has said it is ready to return all of those still held captive in exchange for a complete end to hostilities and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
On Tuesday, the group rejected Israel’s proposal for a renewed ceasefire.
A senior Palestinian official told the BBC: “The Israeli proposal relayed to the movement through Egypt explicitly called for the disarmament of Hamas without any Israeli commitment to end the war or withdraw from Gaza. Hamas therefore rejected the offer in its entirety.”
Since Israel restarted its offensive in Gaza, at least 1,630 people have been killed – bringing the total killed in 18 months of war to 51,000, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-run health ministry.
The war was triggered by the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
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