Hamas says Gaza's last alive American hostages will be released in truce efforts – state
Hamas said Edan Alexander, the last American hostage in Gaza, will be part of an effort to establish a ceasefire, reopen to the territory and restore aid.
Hamas statement did not say when it happened Sunday night.
The news comes soon before U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East this week. Trump does not intend to visit Israel.
Alexander is an Israeli-American soldier who grew up in the United States. He kidnapped him from the base during a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, which inspired the Gaza war.
Gaza Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayyah said the group has been in contact with the U.S. government for the past few days.
He said in a statement that Hamas was ready to “start intensive negotiations immediately” to reach a final agreement for a long truce that included an end to the war, exchange of Palestinian prisoners and hostages in Gaza and handing over Gaza's power to independent technical experts.
Alexander's parents did not immediately return a request for comment, and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not respond immediately.
Trump has frequently mentioned Alexander, 21, over the past few months.
“Every time they say Edan's name, it's like they haven't forgotten. They haven't forgotten that he is American, they're working hard,” Edan's mother, Yael Alexander, told the Associated Press in February.
The bombing continues
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According to local health officials, Israel went on strike overnight and attacked 15 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children on Sunday.
Nasser Hospital said two of the strikes attacked the tents in the southern city of Khan Younis, each killing two children and their parents. Other places, seven people were striken elsewhere, including a man and his children, according to the hospital and the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The Israeli military said it targets militants only and tries to avoid harming civilians. This blames Hamas on the deaths of civilians in the 19-month-old war as militants embedded in densely populated areas. Israel did not immediately comment on the latest strike.
Israel has locked Gaza for 10 weeks with all imports, including food, medicine and emergency shelters, a pressure strategy designed to force Hamas to release hostages. Israel resumed its offense in March, breaking a ceasefire and promoting the release of more than 30 hostages.
The United Nations and aid groups say food and other supplies are running low and hunger is widespread.
Children carrying empty bottles raced in a disaster-stricken area in northern Gaza on Sunday. Residents of the building's Shati refugee camp said the water was brought by a charity elsewhere in Gaza. Without it, they rely on salty and often contaminated wells.
“I was forced to drink salt water and I had no choice,” said Mahmoud Radwan. “This causes intestinal disease and there is no medication to treat.”
Kogat, an Israeli military agency responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said enough aid was entered during the two-month ceasefire this year, and two of Israel's three main waterlines are still operating. The aid group said the humanitarian crisis was worse than at any time in the 19-month war.
Trump visits the region
Trump's administration expressed full support for Israel's actions during his regional tour this week, and he will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and hijacking 251 hostages. Within Gaza, fifty-nine hostages are still inside Gaza, about one-third are still alive, and most of the rest are released under a ceasefire agreement or other transactions.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the Israeli attack killed more than 52,800 Palestinians, mainly women and children, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants or civilians. The offensive destroyed a vast area of the territory and displaced about 90% of the area's population by about 2 million.
Israel restores the remains of soldiers who died in Lebanon in 1982
Israel said in another development that a soldier it was killed in a battle in southern Lebanon in 1982 was listed as a body more than 40 years later.
Sgt. Recovery. The remains of top-notch Tzvi Feldman have made a case that has plagued Israel for years even more closed. The Israeli military said his body was found from deep in Syria and provided no further details.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Feldman's surviving siblings on Sunday and told them that the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad late last year led to an “opportunity” that allowed the army and Mossad, Israel's Foreign Intelligence Agency, Israel's foreign intelligence agencies to gather more intelligence and eventually withdrew the body and his remains.
Feldman, along with five other Israeli soldiers, fought against Syrian troops in the Lebanese town of Sultan Yaaqoub. A few years later, two missing soldiers returned to Israel alive during exchanges with prisoners in Syria. The remains of another soldier returned in 2019, and the fate of the other two remain unknown.
The cases of missing soldiers for decades have strong emotional and political resonance in Israel, where most Jews have to serve in the military.
