The New Jersey Democrat has asked diplomatic and intelligence officials for an update on the status of his constituent after Hamas claimed it had lost touch with his captors
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A young relative of Edan Alexander looks up at Yael Alexander, Edan's mother, speaking at the “International Rally - United We Bring Them Home” rally in Hostage Square on May 18th, 2024 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) has asked the State Department and intelligence community officials for a status update on the condition and whereabouts of Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander after Hamas claimed it had lost contact with his captors inside Gaza, the senator told Jewish Insider.
Alexander, a Tenafly, N.J., native, is the only American hostage in Gaza believed to be alive. Hamas released a video of Alexander earlier this month in which the terror group said he had been held captive for 551 days, implying the video was filmed on April 9 or 10, 2025.
One week later, a Hamas spokesperson alleged that the group had been unable to reach Alexander’s captors following an Israeli airstrike in the area where he was being held. The terror group has not provided an update on Alexander’s condition since. Hamas has lied about the status of hostages in the past and have also tried to attribute the deaths of hostages killed by their captors to Israeli bombing campaigns.
Speaking to JI at the Capitol on Monday, both Kim and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said they were seeking more information on Alexander from U.S. and international channels.
Booker declined to go into specifics, telling JI that there was “nothing I could share” given the fluidity of the situation. Kim, meanwhile, said that he was pressing the Trump administration for clarity about Alexander’s condition and was working on setting up meetings with the Egyptian and Qatari ambassadors in hopes that they could provide an update.
“We’ve asked the State Department and intel community to try to provide us any and all information that they might have. I talked to his parents about this and we’re just trying to figure out what’s what. Also, we just met with the hostage office at the State Department to try to press on the necessity for us to have a sense of what’s true or not on that front. I’m trying to see if I can meet with the ambassadors of Egypt and Qatar as well to see if they have any information through their own routes in terms of engagement,” Kim told JI.
The two senators have been in frequent touch with Alexander’s parents, especially in recent months as U.S. negotiators and the senators themselves pushed to include Alexander in the group of hostages that was released before a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas fell apart in March. The Tenafly native, who turned 21 while in captivity in December, was on IDF patrol at Kibbutz Nirim on Oct. 7 when he was kidnapped into Gaza by Hamas terrorists.