A hostage rescue operator in Syria told Fox News Digital he believes Marine veteran Austin Tice is alive and has hope that he will be found soon.

Hostage envoy Roger Carstens traveled to Syria Friday, making the first known U.S. in-person contact with the caretaker government, and seeking help in finding missing American Austin Tice.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Tice's mother his country won't conduct airstrikes near a secret prison outside Damascus.

We hold Bashar al-Assad and his criminal regime accountable for the consequences of Austin’s disappearance and the pain inflicted on his mother — pain, tears and separation," a spokesman told NBC News.

Nongovernmental workers and journalists have scoured prisons for clues about his fate in the absence of an official American presence in the country.

The mother of Austin Tice, who was taken captive in Syria in 2012, voiced hope that upheaval in the country will lead to freedom for her son.

The recent fall of the Assad regime has infused new hope in the search for Austin Tice, an American detained in Syria for a decade, as prisoners in jails across the country are released, Gustaf Kiland

There are no credible hints of his whereabouts, but also no clear evidence that he is dead, a U.S. official said.

In the 12 years since Austin Tice was abducted in Syria, his family and his coworkers at McClatchy have grieved at his absence, despaired at silence from the Syrian government and prayed that promises from three U.S. presidents would turn into actions that ...

US group Hostage Aid Worldwide says it believes journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, is still alive, but didn’t offer concrete information on his whereabouts.

Bryan Stern, founder of Grey Bull Rescue, says evidence points to a safe return of American journalist and former U.S. Marine Austin Tice, along with other prisoners detained by the brutal Assad regime in Syria.