The father of a US-Israeli hostage held in Gaza said on Saturday he remains hopeful his 21-year-old son was still alive after Hamas said it could not account for his status, Reuters reports.

Adi Alexander, whose son Edan was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured on October 7, 2023, called on the United States to engage in direct talks to free the remaining hostages dead and alive abducted during the deadly attack launched by Hamas two years ago in southern Israel.

“I think we should engage back with them directly and see what can be done in regards to my son, four American dead hostages and everybody else,” the father said in an interview on Saturday.

“It seems like the negotiations are stalled, everything is stuck and we are kind of back to a year ago,” he added. “It’s really concerning.”

Hamas recently released an undated video, purportedly of Edan.

His father Adi said, “He looked very scary to us - just a horrible, horrible video.”