Hamas, the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group, released a video Saturday of one of the four surviving American hostages, Edan Alexander, in which he is shown appealing to “President Trump” to pressure Israel for his release.
Alexander is one of four living U.S. citizens still being held as hostages by Hamas (several others are still classified as hostages but are believed to be dead). A fifth, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was executed by Hamas in August. The video is the first sign that Alexander is still alive, and is therefore being treated in Israel as an important and valuable piece of evidence, aside from its problematic content.
The evident intent by Hamas is to pressure Trump in the same way that it sought to pressure President Joe Biden, using the plight of the hostages to cause the U.S. to lean on the Israeli government to give up the fight in Gaza. Hamas has refused any hostage deal that does not involve Israel giving up on its mission of destroying the group.
In the video, recorded under duress, Alexander is shown in a state of emotional distress, crying at times and holding his head in his hands. He emphasizes that his life is in danger, and alludes to “new instructions” by Hamas, ordering hostages to be murdered if the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tries to rescue them.
In addition to blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the failure to prevent the October 7 attack, Alexander is shown urging Israelis to attend demonstrations against the government, and suggests that Hamas is rejecting Netanyahu’s recent offer to pay $5 million to any Palestinian who returns an Israeli hostage alive.
In addition to messages in Hebrew, directed to Israelis and to his family, Alexander is shown saying, in English:
My name is Edan Alexander. I am an American-Israel citizen currently being held captive in the Gaza Strip. As an American, I have always believed in the power of the United States. And now I am sending my message. Please, use your influence and the full power of the United States to negotiate for our freedom. Every day here feels like an eternity, and the pain from inside grows, day-to-day. Please do not make the mistake Biden has been doing. The weapons he has sent are now killing us. And the unlawful sieges [sic] are now starving [us]. I don’t want to end up dead, like my fellow citizen, Hersh [Goldberg-Polin].
Hamas tried the same tactics with President Biden — with some success, as the Biden-Harris administration withheld critical weapons and machinery needed by Israel for the fight against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Trump promised at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July that those holding American hostages would “be paying a very big price” if they did not return those hostages before he took office in January 2025.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.