Hamas releases Israeli-American hostage in goodwill gesture toward Trump
administration
[May 13, 2025]
By WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDY and TIA GOLDENBERG
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas on Monday released an
Israeli-American soldier who had been held hostage in Gaza for more than
19 months, offering a goodwill gesture toward the Trump administration
that could lay the groundwork for a new ceasefire with Israel.
Edan Alexander, 21, was the first hostage released since Israel
shattered an eight-week ceasefire with Hamas in March and unleashed
fierce strikes on Gaza that have killed hundreds of Palestinians.
He was handed over to the Red Cross and then to Israeli forces before
being flown by helicopter to a hospital in Tel Aviv. Israeli authorities
released video and photos showing a pale but smiling Alexander in an
emotional reunion with his mother and other family members.
Israel has promised to intensify its offensive, including by seizing
Gaza and displacing much of the territory's population again. Days
before the ceasefire ended, Israel blocked all imports from entering the
Palestinian enclave, deepening a humanitarian crisis and sparking
warnings about the risk of famine if the blockade isn’t lifted. Israel
says the steps are meant to pressure Hamas to accept a ceasefire
agreement on Israel’s terms.
Wearing shirts emblazoned with his name, Alexander's extended family
gathered in Tel Aviv to watch the release. They chanted his name when
the military said he was free, while in the city's Hostage Square,
hundreds of people broke out into cheers.
Alexander's grandmother, Varda Ben Baruch, beamed. She said her grandson
looked mostly all right in the first photo of him after nearly 600 days
in captivity.
“He seemed like a man. He has really matured,” she said. Reports that
Alexander cracked a joke on the phone while speaking to his mother for
the first time did not surprise her. “He’s got such a sense of humor,”
she said.
Alexander was 19 when he was taken from his military base in southern
Israel during Hamas' cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which set off
the war in Gaza.
In his hometown of Tenafly, New Jersey, hundreds of supporters packed
the streets, holding signs with his image and listening to speakers
blasting Israeli music. As they watched the news of his release on a
large screen, the crowd hugged and waved Israeli flags. Since he was
taken hostage, supporters there gathered every Friday to march for the
hostages’ release.
Israel says 58 hostages remain in captivity, with about 23 of them said
to be alive. Many of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in
the 2023 attack were freed in ceasefire deals.
Trump calls expected release ‘hopefully’ a step toward ending war
Hamas announced its intention to release Alexander shortly before U.S.
President Donald Trump was set to arrive Tuesday in the Middle East on
the first official foreign trip of his second term.
Trump on Sunday called the planned release “a step taken in good faith
towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators — Qatar and
Egypt — to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living
hostages and remains to their loved ones.”
“Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this
brutal conflict. I look very much forward to that day of celebration!”
Trump said on social media.
Trump, who is traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab
Emirates, is not scheduled to stop in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday with the U.S.
special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and the U.S. ambassador
to Israel, Mike Huckabee, and discussed efforts to release the remaining
hostages, his office said.
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Red Cross vehicles carrying American-Israeli hostage and soldier
Edan Alexander leave the Gaza Strip after he was handed over to the
organization, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Netanyahu "directed that a negotiations team leave for Doha
tomorrow,” the prime minister's office said, adding that Netanyahu
“made it clear that the negotiations would only take place under
fire.”
Netanyahu said Alexander's release “was achieved thanks to our
military pressure and the diplomatic pressure applied by President
Trump. This is a winning combination.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives
of hostages, welcomed the news that an Israeli delegation was headed
to the Qatari capital for talks.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu, the ball is in your court," the group
said in a statement after Alexander was released. It urged the prime
minister to announce that he was ready to negotiate a deal for the
return of all remaining hostages and end the war.
"Don’t miss this historic opportunity facing the State of Israel.
Prove to the Israeli public and President Trump that you are willing
to take a regional initiative that transcends narrow political
considerations,” the group said.
Israel says it still plans to escalate its offensive
On Monday, a statement from Netanyahu's office said Israel did not
make any concessions for Alexander’s release and had only agreed to
create a “safe corridor” to allow Alexander to be returned.
It said Israel would carry on with plans to ramp up its offensive in
Gaza. Israel says it won't launch that plan until after Trump's
visit to the Middle East, to allow for a potential new ceasefire
deal to emerge.
Early Tuesday, an Israeli strike hit the surgery department at
Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Officials
at the hospital said two people were killed and 10 wounded. They had
initially reported three deaths but later amended their tally.
The Israeli military said it had precisely struck Hamas militants
operating from within a command and control center at the hospital.
Netanyahu faces criticism for not freeing all hostages
Alexander's release created a backlash against Netanyahu, whom
critics accuse of having to rely on a foreign leader to help free
the remaining hostages.
At the opening of his trial on corruption allegations, where he is
giving testimony, a woman in the courtroom asked whether he was
“ashamed that the president of the United States is saving his
citizens, and he is leaving them to die there in captivity.”
Critics assert that Netanyahu's insistence on keeping up the war in
Gaza is politically motivated. Netanyahu says he aims to achieve
Israel's goals of freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas.
Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in the 2023 attack. Israel’s
retaliatory offensive has killed over 52,800 Palestinians, many of
them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which
does not say how many of the dead were combatants or civilians.
Israel's offensive has obliterated vast swaths of Gaza's urban
landscape and displaced 90% of the population, often multiple times.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo and Goldenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv contributed to
this report.
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