Adi Alexander, the father of Edan Alexander—one of the hostages recently released from captivity in Gaza—has revealed disturbing details about what his son endured while being held by Hamas.
Speaking to Channel 12 News, Adi recounted that Edan had to conceal his identity during his time in a Hamas-run holding site where multiple hostages were being detained. “They put a ski mask with a green ribbon on him, and he walked between the cells, serving and clearing plates,” Adi said. “The other hostages didn’t even know who he was.”
According to Adi, the compound where Edan was kept quickly morphed into an operational hub for Hamas. Among the detainees were residents from Nir Oz and a group of Thai laborers. With so many people in need of essentials, Edan took on a caretaking role. “He volunteered to look after the Thai crew,” Adi explained, “partly because they struggled to communicate with Hamas.”
On April 14, an Israeli Air Force operation targeted a Hamas facility guarding the tunnel where Edan was being kept, as reported by Ynet. The airstrike triggered a partial collapse of the underground area. Edan was hurt in the process, sustaining injuries to his shoulder and hands while attempting to extract himself from the debris.
During subsequent conversations with relatives and security personnel, Edan described the harrowing moments during the assault. He said it felt like a seismic event had hit. “Suddenly, I felt like someone had detonated C-4 explosives near one of the pressure doors,” he recalled. The second detonation caused the roof to collapse, sending heavy fragments crashing down and injuring his shoulder—an injury he is still in the process of healing from.
With the tunnel caved in, Edan resorted to digging through the rubble by hand in an attempt to survive. “The wounds on his hands,” Adi noted, “came from clawing his way out. He told us, ‘We dug ourselves out before everything fell in on us.’”
{Matzav.com Israel}