Unlike many families who blame the Israel government because they do not have their loved ones free from captivity in Gaza, Adi Alexander hesitates to show fingers. Pragmatic and measured, the father of the last living American to be held hostage by Hamas, just wants his son to come home.
“I don't want to comment on who came first, the egg or the chicken,” Alexander told The Associated Press from his house in New Jersey on Friday. Nevertheless, with the once promoting ceasefires that makes way for renewed fights between Israel and Hamas, whether Israel can guarantee the freedom of his son and is more hopefully about the opportunities of the US to do it.
Photocredit: Reuters
Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old Israeli-American soldier who grew up in the US, is one of the 59 hostages who are still in Gaza, of whom more than half are considered dead.
Last week Hamas said that it would release Edan and the bodies of four other hostages if Israel ceases the stuck -the fire agreement.
Days later, however, Israel launched missiles over Gaza, breaking the two -month -old deal and the murder of hundreds of Palestinians. The hostilities show no signs of decrease, where Israel swore on Friday that he goes deeper into Gaza until Hamas releases the remaining hostages.
The return to fighting has inflamed the debate in Israel about the fate of those who are being imprisoned. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under increasing domestic pressure, with mass protests about his handling of the hostage crisis. But he is also confronted with demands from his hard allies not to accept any deal that fails the destruction of Hamas.
The hope of a father
Adi Alexander said he thinks Netanyahu wants to bring everyone home, but on his own conditions. He questions Netanyahu's plans, believing that the message of US President Donald Trump is clear: he is aimed at bringing the hostages home. Alexander said he counts on the US to bridge the big gap between Israel and Hamas. His message to Trump about the efforts of his administration to free his son and the others: “Just maintain this job.”
Many families of the hostages say that Trump has done more for them than Netanyahu, and the president credits with the cease -the fire. In December, before he took office, Trump demanded the immediate release of the hostages and said that if they were not released before he was sworn in for his second term, “to pay hell”.
Phase one of the deal started weeks later and saw the release of 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. It would stop -the fireplace would continue as long as the conversations in the second phase, but Netanyahu switched to the introduction of substantive negotiations.
Instead, he tried to force Hamas to accept a new -fireplan plan that was drawn up by the American Midden -Oost -Envant Steve Witkoff. Hamas would need that plan to release half of its remaining hostages – the most important negotiating ship of the militant group – in exchange for a cease – fire extension and a promise to negotiate a permanent ceasefire.
Hamas has said that it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a permanent cessation -the fires and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as requested in the original cease -the -Fire agreement mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
The US goes directly together with Hamas
As a soldier, Edan would have been released during the second phase of the deal. But Hamas announced this month that it would release Edan after the White House said that the “current conversations and discussions” had held with the group – regardless of the most important negotiations. It is the first known direct involvement between Hamas and the US since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs designated a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
ADI Alexander said that Adam Boehler, who helps the trump administration's efforts to free the hostages, led individual conversations because phase two was stuck. But he said he did not believe that Hamas' claim that it would release his son because it came from the left field and was not considered part of the discussions between the group and Boehler.
The fearful father said that he speaks and understands with Witkoff and Boehler almost daily that the negotiations are underway, despite the resumption of fighting.
Edan, a resident of Tenafly, a suburb of New Jersey in New York City, moved to Israel in 2022 after high school and served with the army. He was abducted from his basis during the October 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war, when Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel and hosted 251 others.
The debilitating waiting
Since the kidnapping of Edan there has been little new about him.
Hamas released a video of him in November during the Thanksgiving weekend. His family said it was difficult to watch as he cried and begged for help, but it was a relief to see that he was alive.
Free -lengths have given the family more news, according to his father. Some said Edan had lost a lot of weight. Others said he had been an advocate for colleague -hostage people, standing up for kidnapped Thai employees and told their abductors that the employees were not and had to be liberated Israelically.
Although he knows that the resumption of fighting means that it will take more time to get his son back, Adi Alexander said that he thinks both parties had become too comfortable with ceases -fires and that this was a reason that phase two never started. He wants the war to end and hopes that the fighting is limited and targeted and everyone pushes back to the table.
“Someone, I think I had to shake this tree to make chaos, and chaos creates opportunities,” he said. “The only goal is to return to the negotiating table to get those people out.”
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by Our staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
