CAIRO, May 28. /TASS/. Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a video that allegedly shows a hostage who identifies himself as Alexander Trufanov.

In the video that was posted to the Telegram channel of Saraya al-Quds, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the young man addresses protesters in Hebrew and says he will soon tell them the "truth about what happened to him and dozens of other hostages held in Gaza."

It is not clear when the video was recorded.

On February 8, Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar said, following a meeting of Jewish community leaders with Russian President Vladimir Putin, that the head of state planned to use all his influence and connections to solve the problem of hostages in Gaza as soon as possible. The president "has all the information about the hostages who have Russian citizenship. There are three of them, and Alexander Trufanov is only one of them," the rabbi said.

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and taking more than 200 hostages, including children, women and elderly people. Israel declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and started striking the enclave and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.