Father of US-Israeli hostage hopeful son still alive, calls for direct talks with Hamas
Adi Alexander’s comments come after Hamas claimed it doesn’t know Edan’s fate; desperate father urges US to speak with terror group as other negotiations seem ‘stalled’
The father of a US-Israeli hostage held in Gaza said on Saturday he remains hopeful his 21-year-old son was still alive after Hamas said it could not account for his status.
Adi Alexander, whose son Edan was serving in the IDF when he was captured on October 7, 2023, called on the United States to again engage in direct talks with Hamas to free the remaining hostages – alive and dead – abducted during the deadly invasion led by the Palestinian terror group in southern Israel.
“I think we should engage back with them directly and see what can be done in regards to my son, four American dead hostages, and everybody else,” the father said in an interview on Saturday, referring to previous direct talks between the US and Hamas and reports that they could be held again.
“It seems like the negotiations are stalled, everything is stuck, and we are kind of back to a year ago,” he added. “It’s really concerning.”
Arab diplomatic sources told Emirati outlet Erem News on Saturday that the US has submitted a request to mediators for direct discussions with Hamas on the issue of hostages, with the aim of securing the release of Alexander and the bodies of four other dual nationals.
The armed wing of Hamas said on Sunday it did not know the fate of Alexander, after noting that the guard holding him was killed in an Israeli strike. Reuters could not verify Hamas’s claim.
A US State Department spokesperson had no comment on the status of Alexander but reiterated that Hamas must immediately release him and all remaining hostages, and that Hamas “bears sole responsibility for the war, and for the resumption of hostilities.”
A day earlier, Hamas had released an undated video of Edan. His father Adi said, “He looked very scary to us – just a horrible, horrible video.”
A hostage video is, by definition, made under duress, and the statements in it are usually coerced, according to international law groups and human rights experts.
Hamas abducted Edan Alexander when he was 19 during its October 7, 2023, invasion in which terrorists killed some 1,200. The 5,000 terrorists who burst into the country also abducted 251 people who were taken as hostages to Gaza. Israel responded with a still ongoing military campaign to destroy Hamas, remove it from power over the Strip, and secure the release of the hostages.
Edan, who holds dual nationality, grew up in New Jersey. His father said his son was an “all-American kid, great athlete …, such a loving, loving boy” who found himself in “the wrong place, wrong time.”
He said if he could speak to his son now, he would tell him, “Just believe. You know, nobody forgot about you. Definitely not your parents, and everybody is fighting for your release on the highest level in the States and I believe also in Israel.”
In its Saturday report, Erem News cited unnamed sources who said the US request for a direct meeting with an official from the Palestinian terror group was submitted to a mediator last week and could take place within the next few days.
The sources told the outlet that they did not know what the US could offer the terror group in return for the release of Alexander and the bodies of Judih Weinstein and her husband, Gadi Haggai, Omer Neutra and Itay Chen.
Last month, Hamas claimed it was willing to release Alexander along with the bodies of the four other dual US-Israeli citizens, an offer which Israel slammed as “manipulation and psychological warfare,” and said it would not agree to a deal that only saw Americans freed.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration’s hostage envoy, Adam Boehler, said “it is possible” that his direct talks with Hamas could resume. Speaking to the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network, Boehler also asserted that Hamas wouldn’t be “dumb” enough to harm Alexander, as doing so would lead the US to “come after” the terror group. The comments were made prior to the Hamas announcement that it had lost contact with Alexander’s captors.
The interview was Boehler’s first on the Israel-Hamas conflict in several weeks, following uproar in Jerusalem over unprecedented direct negotiations he held with Hamas officials to try to secure the release of Alexander and the bodies of the hostages.
Israel found out about those talks after the fact, leading Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer to hold an angry call with Boehler, knocking him for negotiating on Israel’s behalf without keeping Jerusalem in the loop, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel last week.
But Boehler said in the Wednesday interview that the offer he made in early March for the five American hostages was “coordinated with Israel.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents many of the families of captives, has lobbied for the government to reach a single comprehensive deal to bring all of the hostages back, in return for ending the war. Hamas would be expected to also demand the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners.
However, on Saturday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Omer Dostri said the idea that all the hostages can be returned under one agreement was “spin,” during an interview with Channel 12’s “Meet the Press” show.
“It is impossible to return everyone with one deal. This is a spin. There isn’t anyone who doesn’t want to return our hostages. We are doing everything to return the hostages, and the moment we return everyone, we will eliminate Hamas. It is impossible to do a deal for everyone. Hamas is demanding an end to the war,” said Dostri.
Hamas has said it is ready to return all the hostages for an end to the war and the withdrawal of IDF troops from Gaza. In recent weeks, petitions signed by current and retired military reservists, as well as various sectors of Israeli society, have also urged a deal to return all the hostages, even if it means ending the war.
Later Saturday, Netanyahu gave a prerecorded video address in which he vowed that he would not end the war with Hamas in Gaza until the terror group is removed from power, calling its current demands for a hostage release deal “capitulation conditions.”
Fifty-nine hostages remain in Gaza. Fewer than half of them are believed to be still alive.
The Times of Israel Community.