Israel-Gaza-Lebanon live updates: Hostage's father makes plea to Biden and Trump

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he spoke with the family of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, a video of whom was released by Hamas on Saturday.

"The brutal video that was released is part of psychological warfare, but it is an important and moving sign of life for us and for his family," Katz wrote on X.

"The hostages and their families are going through terrible suffering," he added. Israeli authorities "are working tirelessly to return all the kidnapped people home," Katz wrote.

Alexander, who grew up in New Jersey, was a serving Israeli soldier positioned on the Gaza frontier during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack.

Save the Children has announced that one of their staff members was killed Saturday in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, Gaza.

Ahmad Faisal Isleem Al-Qadi, 39, worked for the non-profit's administrative team in Gaza since May 2024, Save the Children said in a statement.

"Ahmad, who was deaf, will be remembered for his determination to help others, for his pride in his daughter, and for his ability to brighten others’ days. He had shared his dream with colleagues of rebuilding his home that was destroyed in a previous airstrike," the organization said in the statement.

This is the second Save the Children member killed in Gaza since the conflict began.

"There are not strong enough words to express the grief and outrage we feel at the loss of Ahmad in an Israeli airstrike. He was a valued member of our team and loved by all who met him," Inger Ashing, Save the Children International's chief executive, said in the statement.

"We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms and demand an investigation," he added.

The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately comment about Al-Qadi's death.

-ABC News' Victoria Beaulé

The White House has been in touch with Edan Alexander’s family and called the release of the video featuring a message from him a "cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own," White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement Saturday

"The war in Gaza would stop tomorrow and the suffering of Gazans would end immediately — and would have ended months ago — if Hamas agreed to release the hostages," he said.

"It has refused to do so, but as the President said last week, we have a critical opportunity to conclude the deal to release the hostages, stop the war, and surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza. This deal is on the table now," he added.

-ABC News' Justin Gomez

Hamas released a video on Telegram Saturday featuring American hostage Edan Alexander speaking to the camera.

Alexander was taken hostage on Oct. 7th while serving in the IDF and stationed in southern Israel near Gaza.

In the heavily edited propaganda video, Alexander addresses Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Hebrew, and President-elect Donald Trump in English, before an ending message to his family.

"Every day that passes, the pain increases inside me. I miss you very much, every day I pray to see you soon," Alexander said in Hebrew.

It is unclear when the video was filmed, however, Alexander says in the video that he was held for "more than 420 days."

Alexander's family released a statement Saturday, calling for a deal to bring all of the hostages home.

"As time runs out, we urge both current and incoming U.S. administrations to exhaust every possible option and leverage every form of pressure—the hostages' lives hang by a thread," they said in a statement.

Alexander's mother spoke with the press Saturday evening at a rally for the release of hostages in Tel Aviv. She said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called her an hour after the video was released saying he was working for a deal that would release all the hostages.

"Suddenly to see him alive, and speaking... When he cried, I just want to hold him [...] I want him to know that we are doing everything we can to bring him home," she said.

-ABC News' Victoria Beaulé