Hamas announced Sunday that it would free the sole surviving Israeli-American hostage, Edan Alexander, as part of a push to stop the war in Gaza.
Alexander, now 21, was captured on October 7, 2023 during Hamas’s attack that day on Israel. Around 250 people were abducted. Fifty-nine remain in the strip, and dozens are presumed dead, including four Americans.
Alexander’s parents, alongside the U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Response Adam Boehler, will travel to Israel early this week for their son’s release.
Hamas said that it is “ready to immediately begin intensive negotiations and invest serious efforts to reach a final agreement to end the war, reach an agreed-upon exchange of prisoners and a solution for governance in the Gaza Strip by independent professional individuals.”
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The news comes amid increasing U.S.–Israel tensions. The U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, speaking to families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, recently criticized their government’s refusal to end the war to secure a hostage release, according to Israeli media. “Israel is prolonging the war, even though we do not see where further progress can be made,” Witkoff said.
Israel plans to escalate the Gaza war, conquer the strip, and displace Palestinians living there to the south of the enclave if no hostage deal is reached by the end of President Donald Trump’s trip this week to the Middle East.
Trump, in announcing the release of Alexander on Truth Social, thanked Qatar and Egypt for mediating talks with Hamas. He did not mention Israel.
