This young NJ high school grad is still being held hostage by Hamas

☑️ Hamas attacked Israel one-year ago taking 250 people hostage

☑️ One of the hostages is Edan Alexander from Tenafly while serving with the IDF

☑️ Pro-Palestinian groups are also marking the occasion

Monday, Oct. 7, marks one year since the Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200. More than a hundred people remain hostage to the terrorist organization in Gaza, including including seven Americans.

One of the Americans taken hostage is Edan Alexander of Tenafly. The 19-year-old had just graduated from Tenafly High School and was serving as a volunteer with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) when he was taken hostage and has not been heard from since. His parents hold out hope their son is still alive.

Two other New Jersey residents taken hostage have been confirmed dead, including Itay Glisko, 20, a Paramus native who was serving with the Israeli Defense Force. His family moved to Israel when he was 2 but he still has family in New Jersey.

Laor Abramov, 20, was a DJ at the Nova music festival that was ambushed by Hamas. Laor lived in Hopewell and moved to Israel during the pandemic in 2020.

Sparking a year of war

The surprise cross-border attack one year ago — which caught Israelis unprepared on a major Jewish holiday — shook their faith in their leaders and their military, and its aftershocks are still rippling across the region.

Around 100 hostages of the 250 captured that day have not been returned. A third of the hostages are believed to be dead, and cease-fire efforts have ground to a halt. The punishing retaliation by Israel continues today, leaving nearly 42,000 dead in Gaza.

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Rally in Central Park

Alexander's parents led a rally in Central Park on Sunday. A “fence of hope” included pictures of those still held with yellow ribbons.

“It’s been a year, and no humanitarian organization has been allowed to see them. We need a cease-fire for peace to begin and to start to heal as a nation and as a people. We need action and we need it now,” his mother Yael Alexander said, according to coverage of the rally by the New York Post.

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Pro-Palestinian groups also rally

Gov. Phil Murphy ordered U.S. and New Jersey flags to fly at half-staff on Monday to commemorate the occasion.  In a written statement, he recognized the loss of life on all sides and said New Jersey is the home to some of the largest Jewish, Israeli American, Muslim, Palestinian American, and Lebanese American communities in the United States.

"The escalation of this conflict has also led to the loss of tens of thousands of innocent lives across Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, and the displacement of approximately 90% of the Gazan civilian population," the statement said. "Governor Murphy believes that protecting innocent civilians must remain central in efforts to deescalate the conflict and foster future stability."

Students for Justice in Palestine at New Brunswick, which held a pro-Palestinian encampment on the Rutgers campus at the end of the spring semester, is holding a protest Monday at Brower Commons.

On Sunday, about 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched on Palestine Way in South Paterson to call for an end to Israeli retaliation, according to NorthJersey.com.

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