Hugs and kisses as Israel-US hostage Edan Alexander is freed: ‘We were so worried'
Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander was freed on Monday.
There was a brief pause in the fighting to facilitate his release.
Israeli strikes killed three people when fighting resumed.
An Israeli-American hostage was released from 19 months of captivity in Gaza during a brief pause in fighting on Monday and reunited with his family, but Israeli strikes on the battered enclave soon resumed.
Israel's military received Edan Alexander, 21, from the International Committee of the Red Cross, which facilitated his transfer from Palestinian militant group Hamas.
He was taken to an Israeli military facility and joined by his family.
Video showed that his mother, Yael Alexander, cried as she hugged him, saying: 'How strong you are. I love you so much, Edan. We were so worried.'
Alexander kissed and embraced his father, brother and sister as well. An Israeli Air Force helicopter then took Alexander and his family to a hospital where he was to receive treatment.
Alexander was the last living American held by Hamas and Israel's Channel 12 said his condition was 'low', without citing a source. In photos provided by Israel, he looked pale but in good spirits.
Fighting halted at 12:00 in Gaza after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would pause its operations to allow for the hostage release.
Palestinian health officials reported Israeli tank shelling and an air attack after the hostage handover, and there was no deal on a wider truce or hostage releases as monitors warned of famine in the devastated enclave.
After Israeli fire resumed, authorities in Gaza said an air strike killed three people and wounded several others at a shelter housing displaced families in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
A woman was killed and several other people wounded when tank shells hit a school housing displaced families in the Tuffah neighbourhood in the north of Gaza.
Hamas said it freed Alexander as a goodwill gesture to US President Donald Trump, who is visiting the region this week.
'Edan Alexander, American hostage thought dead, to be released by Hamas. Great news!' Trump wrote on social media earlier on Monday.
READ | Two Israel soldiers killed amid 'fierce fighting' with Hamas in Gaza
Netanyahu said Alexander's release came thanks to Israel's military pressure in Gaza and political pressure by Trump.
In a photo taken on the military helicopter and released by Israel, Alexander held a sign reading: 'Thank you, president Trump.'
Netanyahu has said there will be no ceasefire and that plans to intensify military action in Gaza continued.
'Israel has not committed to a ceasefire of any kind,' Netanyahu's office said.
After growing up in New Jersey, Alexander, who has dual citizenship, moved to Israel and was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured in Hamas' 2023 attack.
#UPDATE Palestinian militant group Hamas said its armed wing handed over a US-Israeli hostage held in Gaza since October 2023 ahead of a regional visit by US President Donald Trump https://t.co/MXyzLQGgUH
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 12, 2025
Social media video on Monday showed people dancing in the square of his hometown of Tenafly, New Jersey, after word of his release.
The release, after four-way talks between Hamas, the US, Egypt and Qatar, could open the way to freeing the remaining 58 hostages in the Gaza Strip, 19 months after Hamas' attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
Qatar and Egypt said Alexander's release was an encouraging step toward new truce talks. Israel will send a delegation to Qatar on Thursday to discuss a new proposal aimed at securing further hostage releases, Netanyahu's office said.
Before Alexander's release, Gaza health authorities said an Israeli strike killed at least 15 people sheltering at a school on Monday. Israel's military said it targeted Hamas fighters there who were preparing an attack.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global hunger monitor, reported on Monday that half a million people in the Gaza Strip face starvation and there is a critical risk of famine by September.
Trump is due to visit Gulf states on a trip that does not include Israel but special envoy Steve Witkoff, who helped arrange Alexander's release, was expected in Israel on Monday.
Alexander's family thanked Trump and Witkoff, saying they hoped the release would hasten the freeing of the remaining hostages.
'We urge the Israeli government and the negotiating teams: please don't stop,' they said.
Israel's government has drawn criticism over the deal to free Alexander, which laid bare the priority given to hostages able to rely on the support of a foreign government.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is among 21 hostages still believed to be alive, said Netanyahu was choosing his political survival over ending the war.
Addressing Trump in a statement she read with other hostage families, she said: 'The Israeli people are behind you. End this war. Bring them all home.'
A ceasefire in late January halted fighting in Gaza for two months and allowed the exchange of 38 hostages for Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails.
Israel resumed its military campaign in March.
It has since extended its control of the territory and blocked off aid, leaving its two million people increasingly short of food.
Israeli forces invaded Gaza after a Hamas-led assault on Israel in October 2023 that killed 1 200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, over 52 000 Palestinians have been killed, Palestinian authorities say, and large swathes of the heavily built-up enclave have been laid to waste.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
42 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Vance blames California Dems for violent immigration protests and calls Sen. Alex Padilla 'Jose'
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Friday accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging violent immigration protests as he used his appearance in Los Angeles to rebut criticism from state and local officials that the Trump administration fueled the unrest by sending in federal officers. Vance also referred to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, the state's first Latino senator, as 'Jose Padilla,' a week after the Democrat was forcibly taken to the ground by officers and handcuffed after speaking out during a Los Angeles news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on immigration raids. 'I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question,' Vance said, in an apparent reference to the altercation at Noem's event. 'I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't a theater. And that's all it is.' 'They want to be able to go back to their far-left groups and to say, 'Look, me, I stood up against border enforcement. I stood up against Donald Trump,'' Vance added. A spokesperson for Padilla, Tess Oswald, noted in a social media post that Padilla and Vance were formerly colleagues in the Senate and said that Vance should know better. 'He should be more focused on demilitarizing our city than taking cheap shots,' Oswald said. Vance's visit to Los Angeles to tour a multiagency Federal Joint Operations Center and a mobile command center came as demonstrations calmed down in the city and a curfew was lifted this week. That followed over a week of sometimes-violent clashes between protesters and police and outbreaks of vandalism and looting that followed immigration raids across Southern California. Trump's dispatching of his top emissary to Los Angeles at a time of turmoil surrounding the Israel-Iran war and the U.S.'s future role in it signals the political importance Trump places on his hard-line immigration policies. Vance echoed the president's harsh rhetoric toward California Democrats as he sought to blame them for the protests in the city. 'Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, by treating the city as a sanctuary city, have basically said that this is open season on federal law enforcement,' Vance said after he toured federal immigration enforcement offices. 'What happened here was a tragedy,' Vance added. 'You had people who were doing the simple job of enforcing the law and they had rioters egged on by the governor and the mayor, making it harder for them to do their job. That is disgraceful. And it is why the president has responded so forcefully.' Newsom's spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement, 'The Vice President's claim is categorically false. The governor has consistently condemned violence and has made his stance clear.' In a statement on X, Newsom responded to Vance's reference to 'Jose Padilla,' saying the comment was no accident. Jose Padilla also is the name of a convicted al-Qaida terrorism plotter during President George W. Bush's administration, who was sentenced to two decades in prison. Padilla was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport during the tense months after the 9/11 attacks and accused of the 'dirty bomb' mission. It later emerged through U.S. interrogation of other al-Qaida suspects that the 'mission' was only a sketchy idea, and those claims never surfaced in the South Florida terrorism case. Responding to the outrage, Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for Vance, said of the vice president: 'He must have mixed up two people who have broken the law.' Federal immigration authorities have been ramping up arrests across the country to fulfill Trump's promise of mass deportations. Todd Lyons, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has defended his tactics against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed. The friction in Los Angeles began June 6, when federal agents conducted a series of immigration sweeps in the region that have continued since. Amid the protests and over the objections of state and local officials, Trump ordered the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the second-largest U.S. city, home to 3.8 million people. Trump has said that without the military's involvement, Los Angeles 'would be a crime scene like we haven't seen in years.' Newsom has depicted the military intervention as the onset of a much broader effort by Trump to overturn political and cultural norms at the heart of the nation's democracy. Earlier Friday, Newsom urged Vance to visit victims of the deadly January wildfires while in Southern California and talk with Trump, who earlier this week suggested his feud with the governor might influence his consideration of $40 billion in federal wildfire aid for California. 'I hope we get that back on track,' Newsom wrote on X. 'We are counting on you, Mr. Vice President.' ___ Associated Press writers Julie Watson and Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Tran Nguyen in Sacramento contributed to this report.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump says Harvard has acted ‘appropriately' and deal could soon be announced
President Donald Trump said Friday that Harvard has 'acted extremely appropriately' during negotiations that could soon result in a deal, signaling a possible major shift in his administration's efforts to target the university. 'Many people have been asking what is going on with Harvard University and their largescale improprieties that we have been addressing, looking for a solution. We have been working closely with Harvard, and it is very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so,' Trump said in a late afternoon post to social media. 'They have acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right. If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be 'mindbogglingly' HISTORIC, and very good for our Country,' he added. Talks between a very small circle of Harvard leadership and the White House are ongoing, and a source familiar with those discussions cautioned that a final agreement has not been reached. The source characterized the status of talks as more likely than unlikely to produce an agreement following what they described as good-faith negotiations. An agreement, the source indicated, could potentially resolve outstanding legal battles between the administration and the university. It remains unclear what or who prompted Trump's Friday afternoon social media post, but the news was met with surprise among sources in the Harvard and higher education communities who have been closely observing developments. The White House, the Department of Education and Harvard did not immediately respond to CNN's requests for comment. CNN has reported that the White House has remained open to negotiation with Harvard, with which it is embroiled in multiple lawsuits. A federal judge on Friday indefinitely blocked the Trump administration from revoking Harvard's ability to host international students and scholars while legal challenges continue. Harvard also sued the Trump administration in April over its decision to freeze federal funding and asked for an expedited final decision in the case. Oral arguments are scheduled for July 21. The Trump administration has launched multiple investigations into the school. Efforts to target Harvard began even before Trump returned to office, with his allies arguing they were cracking down on antisemitism on campus amid the Israel-Hamas war. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said last week that the administration believes Harvard has taken steps to combat antisemitism on campus and that some progress has been made. 'We are, I think, making progress in some of the discussion, where even though they have taken a hard line, they have, for instance, replaced their head of Middle East Studies,' McMahon said during a moderated conversation with Bloomberg in Washington, DC. Asked whether Harvard should expect additional actions from the administration, she said, 'At this particular time, we're continuing with the things we've already talked about.' This story has been updated with additional reporting.
Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- Wall Street Journal
WSJ Opinion: Iran Makes No Concessions as Trump Contemplates U.S. Military Action
The U.S. President gives Iran two more weeks to dismantle its nuclear program peacefully, while Iran tries to pull in Europe and others to intervene to stop its war with Israel. Photo: Jack Guez/Reuters/Spencer Colby/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock/Iranian Supreme Leader's Office/Zuma Press
