DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Hamas says Edan Alexander, the final residing American hostage in Gaza, might be launched as a part of efforts to determine a ceasefire, reopen crossings into the Israeli-blockaded territory and resume the supply of support.
The Hamas assertion Sunday night time doesn’t say when the discharge will occur. The announcement comes shortly earlier than U.S. President Donald Trump visits the Center East this week. Trump is just not planning to go to Israel.
Alexander is an Israeli-American soldier who grew up in the USA. He was kidnapped from his base through the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault that ignited the warfare in Gaza.
There was no speedy response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace. Netanyahu’s authorities was angered by U.S. direct talks with Hamas earlier this 12 months.
Khalil al-Hayyah, a Hamas chief in Gaza, mentioned the group has been involved with the U.S. administration over the previous few days.
Al-Hayyah mentioned in a press release Hamas is able to “instantly begin intensive negotiations” to achieve a closing deal for a long-term truce which incorporates an finish to the warfare, the alternate of Palestinian prisoners and hostages in Gaza and the handing over of energy in Gaza to an impartial physique of technocrats.
Alexander’s mother and father didn’t instantly return requests for remark.
Varda Ben Baruch holds an image of her grandson Edan Alexander, gathers with households to name out on loudspeakers close to the Gaza border in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel, April 20, 2025.
AP Picture/Ohad Zwigenberg, File
Trump and his particular envoy Steve Witkoff have often talked about Alexander, now 21, by title up to now few months. Witkoff is anticipated to go to Israel within the coming hours.
“Each time they are saying Edan’s title, it is like they did not overlook. They did not overlook he is American, and so they’re engaged on it,” Edan’s mom, Yael Alexander, advised The Related Press in February.
Hamas launched a video of Alexander in November through the Thanksgiving weekend, his favourite vacation, his mom mentioned. The video was tough to observe as he cried and pleaded for assist, however it was a reduction to see the latest signal that he was alive, she mentioned.
A local of Tenafly, New Jersey, the place his mother and father and two youthful siblings nonetheless dwell, Edan Alexander moved to Israel in 2022 after highschool and enlisted within the navy.
Fifty-nine hostages are nonetheless inside Gaza, round a 3rd of them believed to be alive, after many of the relaxation have been launched in ceasefire agreements or different offers.
Bombardment continues
Israeli strikes in a single day and into Sunday killed 15 individuals within the Gaza Strip, largely ladies and youngsters, in accordance with native well being officers.
Two of the strikes hit tents within the southern metropolis of Khan Younis, every killing two kids and their mother and father, in accordance with Nasser Hospital, which acquired the our bodies. One other seven individuals have been killed in strikes elsewhere, together with a person and his youngster in a Gaza Metropolis neighborhood, in accordance with hospitals and Gaza’s Well being Ministry.
The Israeli navy says it solely targets militants and tries to keep away from harming civilians. It blames Hamas for civilian deaths within the 19-month-old warfare as a result of the militants are embedded in densely populated areas. There was no speedy Israeli touch upon the most recent strikes.
Israel has sealed Gaza off from all imports, together with meals, drugs and emergency shelter, for over 10 weeks in what it says is a strain tactic geared 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. Assist teams say the humanitarian disaster is worse than at any time within the 19-month warfare.
Youngsters 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 mentioned the water was introduced by a charity from elsewhere in Gaza. With out it, they depend on wells which are salty and infrequently polluted.
“I’m compelled to drink salty water, I’ve no alternative,” mentioned Mahmoud Radwan. “This causes intestinal illness, and there is not any drugs to deal with it.”
COGAT, the Israeli navy physique in control of Palestinian civilian affairs, says sufficient support entered throughout a two-month ceasefire this 12 months and that two of the three most important water traces from Israel are nonetheless functioning.
Trump to go to the area
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 won’t embrace Israel.
The warfare started when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 individuals, largely civilians, and taking 251 hostage.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 52,800 Palestinians, largely ladies and youngsters, in accordance with Gaza’s Well being Ministry, which doesn’t say how most of the useless have been combatants or civilians. The offensive has destroyed huge areas of the territory and displaced some 90% of its inhabitants of round 2 million.
Israel recovers stays of soldier killed in Lebanon in 1982
In a separate improvement, Israel mentioned 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 mentioned his stays have been recovered from deep inside Syria, with out offering additional particulars.
Netanyahu visited Feldman’s surviving siblings on Sunday and advised them that the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad late final 12 months led to an “alternative” that allowed the navy and the Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence company, to collect further intelligence and ultimately find and retrieve the physique, in accordance with video launched by his workplace.
Feldman went lacking, together with 5 different Israeli troopers, in a battle with Syrian forces within the Lebanese city of Sultan Yaaqoub. A number of years later, two of the lacking troopers have been returned alive to Israel in prisoner exchanges with Syria. The stays of one other soldier have been returned in 2019, after Russia mentioned it had helped find them in Syria, whereas the destiny of the opposite two remained unknown.
Circumstances 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.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Related Press author Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
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