At least 54 more Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli air strikes killed at least 54 people on Saturday, adding the toll was expected to climb.

“Fifty-four people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn today… and the number is likely to rise as the bombing continues until this moment,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told the media.

Meanwhile, the fate of a US-Israeli hostage who Hamas said had featured in an Israeli truce proposal remains unknown, the group said on Saturday, separately releasing a video of another hostage alive.

The body of a guard assigned to the American-Israeli, Edan Alexander, had been recovered from the site of a recent Israeli strike, Hamas’s armed wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.

Mohammad Al-Qadi carrying body of his nephew who was killed in an Israeli army airstrike, during his funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday. AP

“But the fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” the fighters said.

Hamas on Thursday signalled its rejection of the plan which would have involved Alexander.

A senior Hamas official had on Monday said Israel proposed a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages, the first of which would have been the Israeli-American.

Alexander is among the dozens of living and dead captives still held in Gaza, 18 months after Hamas’s war with Israel began.

Alexander had also featured in a proposal one month earlier from the United States Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

Israeli hostage held in Gaza, Elkana Bohbot, speaks on a telephone in an unknown location, in this screen grab from a video released by Hamas, on Saturday. Reuters

On Tuesday, Hamas announced it had “lost contact” with the fighter unit holding Alexander following an Israeli air strike on their location in the Gaza Strip.

“We are trying to protect all the prisoners (hostages) and preserve their lives despite the brutality of the aggression… but their lives are in danger due to the criminal bombing operations carried out by the enemy army,” Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, said in a statement on Saturday.

The Brigades on April 12 released a video showing Alexander alive, in which he criticised the Israeli government for failing to secure his release.

Alexander was serving as a soldier in an elite infantry unit on the Gaza border when he was abducted by Palestinian fighters during their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 58 remain in captivity in Gaza including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.