Hamas loses contact with hostage captors as ceasefire talks stall

[MIDDLE EAST] Hamas announced on Tuesday that following an Israeli strike, it has "lost contact" with the captors of an Israeli-American hostage in Gaza, whose release is apparently vital to Israel's latest request for a renewed ceasefire.

The reported strike comes amid heightened tensions over stalled negotiations, with international mediators struggling to bridge gaps between Israel’s demands for hostage releases and Hamas’s insistence on a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The US, Qatar, and Egypt have been leading diplomatic efforts, but progress remains elusive as both sides harden their positions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited northern Gaza on Tuesday, his office stated, as the military continued the onslaught that began on March 18, thus ending a two-month ceasefire. Speaking to troops, he stated that Hamas would continue to "suffer blow after blow".

In a Telegram post, Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said: "We announce that we have lost contact with the group holding soldier Edan Alexander following a direct strike on their location."

The claim raises concerns about the fate of Alexander and other hostages, as previous Israeli strikes have resulted in accidental hostage deaths. In December, three Israeli captives were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces despite waving white flags, an incident that intensified scrutiny over military operations in densely populated areas of Gaza.

"We are still trying to reach them at this moment," she said. The military wing later published a video addressed to the remaining prisoners' relatives, telling them that if Israel continued to pound the territory, their loved ones would most likely return in coffins.

The video saw masked militants dragging black coffins out of white vans in the dark, with a subtitled message in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. "Be prepared. The message warns that "your children will soon return in black coffins, their bodies torn apart by shrapnel from your army's missiles."

Hamas' armed wing published a video on Saturday showing Alexander alive and criticizing the Israeli government for failing to achieve his release. Alexander appeared to be under stress in the video, making numerous hand movements while criticizing Netanyahu's regime.

AFP was unable to determine when the footage was taken. Alexander was serving in an elite army unit on the Gaza border when he was kidnapped by Palestinian militants during an October 2023 attack.

The October 7 attack, which triggered the current war, saw Hamas militants kill around 1,200 people in southern Israel and seize over 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has since killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble, displacing nearly 90% of its population.

The soldier, who turned 21 in captivity, was born in Tel Aviv and raised in the US state of New Jersey before returning to Israel after high school to join the army. Hamas announced on Monday that it had received a new peace offer from Israel, which includes the release of ten living hostages, beginning with Alexander, in exchange for a 45-day ceasefire. According to a Hamas spokesman, the Israeli proposal called for Alexander's release on the first day of the ceasefire as a "gesture of goodwill".

The proposed deal, if accepted, would mark the first major breakthrough in negotiations since the collapse of the previous truce in late November. However, Hamas has repeatedly rejected temporary pauses, demanding a comprehensive agreement that includes a complete Israeli withdrawal and the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Egyptian officials delivered it to the party's envoy in Cairo over the weekend, and a senior Hamas official told AFP that the group would "most likely" answer in 48 hours. Another Hamas official stated that Israel had also asked that Palestinian militants disarm in order to halt the Gaza battle, but that this had crossed a "red line". Out of 251 hostages captured during Hamas' October 2023 raid, 58 remain in captivity, including 34 who the Israeli military claims are dead.

In northern Gaza, Netanyahu addressed troops, "They are striking the enemy, and Hamas will continue to take blow after blow." We demand that they release our captives, and we insist on fulfilling all of our war goals."

In a phone discussion with Netanyahu on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that only a cease-fire in Gaza could rescue the other hostages. He stated that the suffering of Gazan residents "must end" and called for the "opening of all humanitarian aid crossings" into the Palestinian enclave.

Israel has cut off all supply to the Gaza Strip since March 2 to put pressure on Hamas. The United Nations has warned that Gaza's humanitarian catastrophe is out of control, with no aid entering the region in over a month and a half.

"The humanitarian situation is now likely the worst it has been in the 18 months since the outbreak of hostilities," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated.

Macron infuriated Israel last week when he suggested Paris recognize a Palestinian state at a UN conference in New York in June. Netanyahu's office said he told Macron on Tuesday that establishing a Palestinian state would be a "huge reward for terrorism".