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Hamas issued a statement claiming it will release Edan Alexander, who is believed to be the last known living American being held hostage by the terrorist group, according to several reports.
In a statement, senior Hamas negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya explained that Hamas was affirming “its readiness to immediately start intensive negotiations, and make serious efforts to reach a final agreement” to end the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, according to CNN.
“The movement affirms its readiness to immediately start intensive negotiations, and make serious efforts to reach a final agreement to stop the war, exchange prisoners in an agreed manner, and manage the Gaza Strip by an independent professional body,” Al-Hayya said.
Per the outlet, Hamas announced that Alexander would be released “as part of the steps toward a ceasefire that will see the crossing into Gaza opened”:
Following the communications, Hamas announced it will release Alexander as part of the steps toward a ceasefire that will see the crossings into Gaza opened and humanitarian aid brought into Gaza following an Israeli blockade that has last more than two months.
The statement issued by Hamas on Sunday evening, comes as President Donald Trump is set to visit the Middle East in the upcoming days, according to the Associated Press.
Alexander, who was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, went on to join the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) after graduating high school, according to Haaretz News.
Yael Alexander, Edan’s mom, explained that at the time of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Edan had been stationed on the Gaza border. On October 7, Yael was awakened around 6:30 a.m. and she contacted Edan. After the two spoke on the phone, that was the “last” she heard from her son:
On Friday, the eve of the Simhat Torah holiday, they spoke on a video chat. “He was cute and handsome, playing with his hair the whole time. He said that people had brought them a holiday meal at the base, and that he was going to sleep because he had a guard shift early in the morning,” Yael says.
“I joked and said, ‘We’ll come with an armored vehicle tomorrow; for Shabbat we’ll bring you cholent” — a slow-simmering stew that Orthodox Jews eat on Shabbat so that they don’t need to cook. “He laughed and said, ‘They won’t let you in, it’s dangerous.’ I went to bed, and at 6:30 in the morning, my father woke me up to go out to the stairwell, because there was a siren.”
She immediately sent a message to Edan and asked if everything was okay. He replied that rockets were flying but he was in a safe place and she shouldn’t worry. When the second siren went off, they went out to the stairwell again, and this time Edan didn’t answer her messages. But he called a few minutes later.
– News’s Simon Kent reported in March that Hamas claimed it would release Alexander, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office “cast doubt” on Hamas’s offer and accused the terrorist organization of “trying to manipulate talks underway in Qatar.”
