Hamas Gaza leader Khalil al-Heyya said the US government had been in touch for the past few days during negotiations.
Hamas terrorist group said on May 11 that it would release Edan Alexander, Gaza’s last American hostage, to establish a ceasefire with Israel and resume providing assistance to war-torn territory it controls.
Hamas did not specify when Alexander will be released, but the announcement came as President Donald Trump prepares to visit the Middle East this week. He is not planning to visit Israel during his trip.
Alexander, 21, is an Israeli-American soldier from the United States, but was captured from his base while siege to southern Israel, which sparked the Hamas war on October 7, 2023.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office expressed dissatisfaction with the Trump administration over negotiations with Hamas earlier this year, but his government did not respond immediately before.
Hamas Gaza leader Khalil al-Heyya said the US government had been in touch for the past few days.
In a statement, he said Hamas was ready to “start intensive negotiations soon” to formalize a permanent ceasefire that would end the war, exchange hostages with Palestinian prisoners in Gaza, and give Gaza authority to independent institutions.
Trump and his special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has repeatedly introduced him to Alexander in the past few months. Witkov met with hostage families during his visit to Israel on May 11th.
“We want to bring hostages home, but Israel is willing to end the war,” he said. “Israel is extending it despite the fact that they don’t know where else they can go and must reach an agreement.
“There is a window of opportunity that we hope is available to Israel and all mediators now. We are putting pressure on all mediators and doing everything we can to bring hostages home,” he added.
“Every time they say Edan’s name, they seem to have forgotten. They don’t forget that he is American and they’re working on it,” Edan’s mother, Yael Alexander, said in February.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend in November 2024, Hamas released a video of Alexander, according to her mother. She said the video was not only difficult to watch for his cry and help, but also made him feel at ease as it was the latest indication that the young soldier was still alive.
Alexander is a native of Tenafrie, New Jersey, and his parents and siblings still live there. In 2022, he moved to Israel after high school and joined the Israeli Defense Forces.
There are still 59 hostages in Gaza, and it is believed that about a third of them are still alive. Most of the remaining hostages were released through ceasefire negotiations or other agreements.
In late April, Palestinian authorities President Mahmoud Abbas called for the arm to be held in his arms and handed over the Gaza Strip, which was controlling Gaza before Hamas won the election in 2006.
Hamas controls the territory the following year after the relationship between terrorist groups and Palestinian authority becomes sour and a brief civil war breaks out. Hamas eventually ousted Palestinian authority out of the Gaza Strip.
After Hamas took over power, Israel established a blockade of land, air and sea in Gaza, citing the need to protect its citizens from Hamas, and has not been voted in Gaza.
On April 23, Abbas urged Hamas to return Gaza rules to Palestinian authority and turn them into political parties.
The 89-year-old politician has previously called on rival Hamas to put troops under authorities’ control, but Hamas has not yet done so since the war broke out in the Gaza Strip in late 2023.
Abbas suggests that on October 7, 2023, Hamas criticized the attack on southern Israel, giving Israel an excuse to destroy the Gaza Strip.
Guy Birchall and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
