Hamas says it has lost contact with US-Israeli hostage

Alexander was part of an Israeli proposal for a 45-day ceasefire that would involve "the release of half of the hostages in the first week of the agreement," a Hamas official told AFP. A two-month ceasefire at the start of the year saw Hamas release 33 hostages in return for the release of 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and aid and goods entering the strip. A senior Palestinian official told the BBC: "The Israeli proposal relayed to the movement through Egypt explicitly called for the disarmament of Hamas without any Israeli commitment to end the war or withdraw from Gaza.