The Hamas terrorist organization said Friday it will release a U.S.-Israeli dual national, believed to be the last living American hostage held in Gaza. The bodies of four dual-nationals who had died in brutal captivity will also be handed over.
The decision came after a proposal from mediators to resume negotiations on the second phase of a ceasefire deal, Reuters reports.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office cast doubt on the offer, accusing Hamas of trying to manipulate talks underway in Qatar on the next stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
No specific details of when the release of soldier Edan Alexander and four other bodies would occur — or what it expected to get in return, AP reports.
Varda Ben Baruch, whose grandson Edan Alexander is held hostage in the Gaza Strip by Hamas militants, gestures to a Torah scroll in his bedroom at home in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Alexander was 19 when he was abducted from his base on the border with Gaza in southern Israel during the Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that sparked Israel’s determined response.
The United States, led by the Trump administration’s hostage envoy Steve Witkoff, has been pushing for a proposal that would extend the truce and see a limited number of hostage for prisoner exchanges, the AP report notes.
The White House last week made a surprise announcement, saying American officials had engaged in “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials, stepping away from a long-held U.S. policy of not directly engaging with the militant group.
It was not immediately clear whether those talks were at all linked to Hamas’ Friday announcement about the release of the American hostage.
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