Hamas, the Palestinian armed group, said on Sunday evening that he would freed the last living American citizen held prisoner in Gaza, a few days before President Trump should arrive in the region for the first great foreign tour of his second term.
Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas' main negotiator, said in a statement that Hamas had agreed to free the hostage, Edan Alexander, 21 years old, after the talks with the United States. He did not say when Mr. Alexander would be released or what Hamas expected to receive in return.
Raised in Tenafly, in New Jersey, Mr. Alexander, a double Israeli American citizen, moved to Israel to serve in the army after high school. During the attacks led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, the Palestinian militants kidnapped him from the military place where he was stationed.
The announcement arrives in a fundamental moment in the Middle East, where Mr. Trump should land on Tuesday for a diplomacy. Trump should visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Qatar in the wake of disagreements with Israel for interviews with Iran on his nuclear program.
The war in Gaza will hang heavily for the visit of Mr. Trump, even if he is not visiting Israel. The Israeli government is threatening an important military offensive that would move most of the people to Gaza unless Hamas surrendered and turns its remaining hostages. Israel has already blocked food and other aid in Gaza for more than two months, deepening the humanitarian crisis of the enclave.
Hamas has widely refused to free more prisoners, saying that Israel must first engage in a path to end the war. But in an effort possible to obtain the favor of Mr. Trump, Hamas agreed to free Mr. Alexander as a gesture of good will, according to the United States official and another diplomat informed about the interviews, who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive negotiations.
The timing and the exact mechanism of the liberation of Mr. Alexander were not yet clear. The Trump administration hoped that it would be freed as soon as Monday, the United States official said. Mahmoud Mardowi, a Hamas official, said the press release will take place the next day.
During the interviews, the United States undertake to undertake “great efforts” to end the war in Gaza, said Mardowi.
“We were asked to release Alexander and we respected the request,” he said in a telephone interview. The Americans, he said, had sent Hamas that “the war took its course” and “had no justification anymore”.
Mr. Alexander was one of the about 250 people taken hostage during the attack of October 7, who lit the war in Gaza. The hostages were brought to Gaza for use as a bargaining chip in future negotiations with Israel. More than 18 months later, 59 of them remain in the enclave. Dozens of them, including four US citizens, are presumed by the Israeli authorities.
Mr. Alexander's parents, Adi and Yael Alexander, made a campaign tirelessly for his release, meeting with officials and talking to Rollies. “We live this day over and over again,” said Adi Alexander in a February interview, referring to the attacks of 7 October.
Mr. and Mrs. Alexander were traveling to Israel on Sunday evening with Adam Boehler, Trump's special correspondent for the response to the hostages, said Boehler in a phone call. Steve Witkoff, sent to the Middle East of Mr. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have contributed to guaranteeing the release of Mr. Alexander, said.
Mr. Alexander's family, in a declaration, defined his return “the greatest imaginable gift” and urged the Israeli government to negotiate the release of the remaining prisoners. “No hostage should be left behind,” they said.
Trump defined the news of the imminent release of Alexander “a step in good faith towards the United States” and said: “We hope this is the first of those latest steps necessary to end this brutal conflict”.
This year, the Trump administration has broken with a long -standing American policy to boycott Hamas, which the United States designated as a terrorist group. Boehler has held direct interviews with Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, in an attempt to guarantee the freedom of Mr. Alexander, as well as the bodies of the four American deaths. But they found themselves among the Israeli objections.
In the previous rounds of negotiations, Hamas has set a clear price to free more hostages: Israel must agree to end the war, collect his forces from the Gaza strip and release a large number of Palestinian prisoners.
During the ceased the two -month fire that began in January, Hamas delivered 30 hostages and the bodies of another eight, while Israel freed more than 1,500 Palestinians who were held in his prisons. Israel concluded the truce in mid -March, saying that the talks to guarantee the next steps of the agreement were blocked.
On Sunday evening, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Washington formally informed Israel that the release of Mr. Alexander would have been a “gesture for Americans” without “compensation or conditions”. The United States and diplomat official said that Hamas agreed to release Alexander without specific requests in return.
Mr. Netanyahu's office suggested, however, that Mr. Alexander's release would not bring Israel to pause his military campaign in Gaza, at least for the moment. “According to Israeli policy, negotiations will take place while the fights continue,” his office said.
The announcement that the United States had obtained a promise of freedom for Mr. Alexander pushed hope to Israel. But he also led some Israelis to express frustration with his government, who failed to obtain the freedom of the remaining hostages.
Mr. Netanyahu's critics invited him to accept an immediate agreement to end the war with Hamas and free the rest of the hostages. Netanyahu resisted, claiming that saving prisoners is less important than the “victory over our enemies”.
“The responsibility lies in the Israeli government,” said the forum of hostage families, a defense group that requires an agreement with Hamas. “Nobody should be left behind.”
Isabel Kershner AND Fatima Abdulkarianim Contributed relationships.