CAIRO, April 15. /TASS/. Israel has bombed the location where Israeli-American hostage Eden Alexander was being held, Abu Ubayda, official representative of the Hamas military wing Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said.
"We lost contact with the escorts guarding hostage Eden Alexander after a strike was carried out directly on his place of detention," he wrote on his Telegram channel, adding that they were "still trying to contact the militants responsible for the young man."
Ubayda accused Israel of deliberately trying to "ease the pressure being exerted on it because of the presence of hostages with dual citizenship" in the Gaza Strip. Information about where exactly Eden Alexander was being held was not provided.
Shortly after, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades released a video titled "an appeal to the families of the hostages," where they threaten that the Israelis held in the Gaza Strip may not return home alive.
On April 12, the radicals distributed a video showing a young man who claimed to be Eden Alexander. He said he felt that the Israeli military’s strikes were getting "closer and closer" to the place where he was being held in the Gaza Strip. No information about where and when the video was recorded was provided, but the young man claims that at the time of recording the video he had been held hostage "for 551 days."
On January 15, Israel and Hamas agreed on the release of hostages held in Gaza and the introduction of a ceasefire in the enclave. The agreement, which includes three stages, entered into force on January 19, its first phase ending on March 1. During the first phase of the agreement the parties were supposed to agree on the implementation of the second phase, but this did not happen.
On March 18, Israel resumed fighting in the Gaza Strip, launching massive strikes on the enclave and explaining this by the refusal of the radical Palestinian movement Hamas from the proposals put forward by mediators and US special envoy Steven Witkoff. It said the purpose of the operation is the release of all hostages. The radicals blamed Israel and the United States for the resumption of hostilities.
According to the latest information provided by Israel, the radicals continue to hold 59 hostages, including Maxim Kharkin, a native of Donbass who has family ties to Russia.