Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said Tuesday that, following an Israeli airstrike, it lost contact with a group guarding Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old Israeli soldier with American citizenship who was captured during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.
“We announce that we have lost contact with the team guarding soldier Edan Alexander following a direct Israeli bombardment targeting their location. We are still trying to reach them,” said Qassam spokesman Abu Obeida.
“It seems that the occupation army is deliberately trying to kill him and hence relieve themselves from the pressure caused by the dual-citizen prisoners in order to continue its genocide against our people,” Obeida added.
Alexander grew up in New Jersey and moved to Israel to join the IDF after high school. He is believed to be the only surviving Israeli hostage in Gaza with Israeli citizenship. Hamas also has the bodies of four dual US-Israeli citizens.
The Trump administration was briefly engaged in direct negotiations with Hamas to reach a deal that would free Alexander. The effort was opposed by Israel, and US officials believe that Israeli officials leaked information about the negotiations to the media to derail them.
Family members of Israeli hostages held in Gaza strongly opposed Israel resuming its massive bombing campaign on March 18 since it put the captives in danger. Israeli strikes have previously killed Israeli hostages, and reporting from 972 Magazine recently revealed that the IDF dropped massive 2,000-pound bombs on areas where intelligence suggested Israeli captives could have been located.
