Hamas said Friday it would be releasing Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage held in Gaza.
The 21-year-old New Jersey native will be the only living hostage in the next release, which will include the bodies of four dual nationals who died in captivity, the terror group said, as negotiations forged ahead on the second phase of a cease-fire deal with Israel.
Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old Israeli-American, will be released along with the bodies of four other hostages.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the transfer would take place, or which parties participated in negotiating the deal.
Hamas didn’t release any further details. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Alexander, an American-Israeli who enlisted with the Israeli military, was 19 when he was taken from his base in southern Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack that sparked the war.
The Trump administration has been pushing for his release as a “top priority.”
“Edan Alexander is very important to us — as all the hostages are — but Edan Alexander is an American, and he’s injured, so he’s a top priority for us,” Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said just last week.
Meetings between Hamas leaders and US hostage negotiator Adam Boehler in recent days had been focused on securing his freedom.
It comes after the White House made a surprise announcement last week, saying that American officials had been engaging in “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials — stepping away from a long-held US policy of not directly engaging with terrorists.
It wasn’t immediately clear, though, if those talks were in any way linked to Hamas’ announcement about Alexander’s release.
Still, Hamas’ Friday announcement comes as talks continued in Qatar to try to broker the next stage of the cease-fire.
The US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to bridge differences between the terror group and Israel to restart negotiations in order to release the remaining hostages held in Gaza and facilitate the entry of aid into the war-torn enclave.
Israel had blocked the entry of aid trucks into Gaza on March 2 as a standoff over the truce escalated — with Hamas calling on mediators to intervene.
Fighting in Gaza, meanwhile, has been on pause since Jan. 19 under the first phase of the three-part cease-fire deal.
So far, Hamas has exchanged 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
