Hamas says Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza, will be released as a part of efforts to ascertain a ceasefire, reopen crossings into the Israeli-blockaded territory and resume the supply of support.
The Hamas assertion Sunday (May 11, 2025) night time doesn’t say when the discharge will occur. The announcement comes shortly earlier than U.S. President Donald Trump visits the Middle East this week. Mr. Trump just isn’t planning to go to Israel.
Alexander is an Israeli-American soldier who grew up in the United States. He was kidnapped from his base throughout the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault that ignited the struggle in Gaza.
There was no quick response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace. MR. Netanyahu’s authorities was angered by U.S. direct talks with Hamas earlier this 12 months.
Khalil al-Hayyah, a Hamas chief in Gaza, stated the group has been in contact with the U.S. administration over the previous few days.
Al-Hayyah stated in an announcement Hamas is able to “immediately start intensive negotiations” to succeed in a last deal for a long-term truce which incorporates an finish to the struggle, the change of Palestinian prisoners and hostages in Gaza and the handing over of energy in Gaza to an unbiased physique of technocrats.
Alexander’s dad and mom didn’t instantly return requests for remark.
Mr. Trump and his particular envoy Steve Witkoff have regularly talked about Alexander, now 21, by title in the previous few months. Witkoff is predicted to go to Israel in the approaching hours.
“Every time they say Edan’s name, it’s like they didn’t forget. They didn’t forget he’s American, and they’re working on it,” Edan’s mom, Yael Alexander, instructed The Associated Press in February.
Hamas released a video of Alexander in November throughout the Thanksgiving weekend, his favorite vacation, his mom stated. The video was tough to observe as he cried and pleaded for assist, nevertheless it was a reduction to see the newest signal that he was alive, she stated.
A local of Tenafly, New Jersey, the place his dad and mom and two youthful siblings nonetheless reside, Edan Alexander moved to Israel in 2022 after highschool and enlisted in the navy.
Fifty-nine hostages are nonetheless inside Gaza, round a 3rd of them believed to be alive, after many of the relaxation had been released in ceasefire agreements or different offers.
Israeli strikes in a single day and into Sunday killed 15 folks in the Gaza Strip, principally girls and kids, in response to native well being officers.
Two of the strikes hit tents in the southern metropolis of Khan Younis, every killing two youngsters and their dad and mom, in response to Nasser Hospital, which obtained the our bodies. Another seven folks had been killed in strikes elsewhere, together with a person and his baby in a Gaza City neighbourhood, in response to hospitals and Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The Israeli navy says it solely targets militants and tries to keep away from harming civilians. It blames Hamas for civilian deaths in the 19-month-old struggle as a result of the militants are embedded in densely populated areas. There was no quick Israeli touch upon the newest strikes.
Israel has sealed Gaza off from all imports, together with meals, medication and emergency shelter, for over 10 weeks in what it says is a stress tactic aimed toward forcing Hamas to launch hostages. Israel resumed its offensive in March, shattering a ceasefire that had facilitated the discharge of greater than 30 hostages.
The U.N. and support teams say meals and different provides are working low and starvation is widespread. Aid teams say the humanitarian disaster is worse than at any time in the 19-month struggle.
Children carrying empty bottles raced after a water tanker in a devastated space of northern Gaza on Sunday. Residents of the built-up Shati refugee camp stated the water was introduced by a charity from elsewhere in Gaza. Without it, they depend on wells which are salty and sometimes polluted.
“I am forced to drink salty water, I have no choice,” stated Mahmoud Radwan. “This causes intestinal disease, and there’s no medicine to treat it.”
COGAT, the Israeli navy physique in cost of Palestinian civilian affairs, says sufficient support entered throughout a two-month ceasefire this 12 months and that two of the three important water strains from Israel are nonetheless functioning.
Mr. Trump, whose administration has voiced full help for Israel’s actions, is ready to go to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week in a regional tour that will not embody Israel.
The struggle started when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 folks, principally civilians, and taking 251 hostage.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 52,800 Palestinians, principally girls and kids, in response to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how lots of the lifeless had been combatants or civilians. The offensive has destroyed huge areas of the territory and displaced some 90% of its inhabitants of round 2 million.
In a separate improvement, Israel stated it retrieved the stays of a soldier killed in a 1982 battle in southern Lebanon after he had been categorized as lacking for greater than 4 many years.
The restoration of Sgt. 1st Class Tzvi Feldman’s stays introduced extra closure to a case that has plagued Israel for years. The Israeli navy stated his stays had been recovered from deep inside Syria, with out offering additional particulars.
Mr. Netanyahu visited Feldman’s surviving siblings on Sunday and instructed them that the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad late last 12 months led to an “opportunity” that allowed the navy and the Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence company, to collect further intelligence and ultimately find and retrieve the physique, in response to video released by his workplace.
Feldman went lacking, together with 5 different Israeli troopers, in a battle with Syrian forces in the Lebanese city of Sultan Yaaqoub. Several years later, two of the lacking troopers had been returned alive to Israel in prisoner exchanges with Syria. The stays of one other soldier had been returned in 2019, after Russia stated it had helped find them in Syria, whereas the destiny of the opposite two remained unknown.
Cases of troopers lacking for many years have a strong emotional and political resonance in Israel, the place navy service is obligatory for many Jewish males.
Published – May 12, 2025 01:57 am IST
