From the Liveblog of
Thursday, April 10, 2025
Report: US envoy offered terrorist swap for Trump win ahead of State of the Union address
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
The Trump administration rushed to hammer out an agreement in March in direct talks with Hamas to free US citizen Edan Alexander before the State of the Union address, The New York Times reports.
The talks were ongoing even as US President Donald Trump reached the US Capitol on March 5 to deliver the address, according to the report. Failing to make a deal, Trump only mentioned the hostages in one brief sentence.
The first of three early March meetings took place in Doha between Trump’s hostage special envoy Adam Boehler, his adviser and three Hamas political officials — Taher al-Nono, Basem Naim and Osama Hamdan.
At the same time, there were parallel talks between Israel and Hamas through Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators attempting to extend the ceasefire that began in January. Those talks failed, and Israel returned to combat in Gaza.
The men ate knafeh and drank orange juice under a large poster of the al-Aqsa Mosque and a photo of slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, says the report, as Nono argued they were simply trying to achieve freedom — a core American value — for Palestinians.
Two days later, says the NYT, Boehler met with Senior Hamas politburo official Khalil al-Hayya, who told the American that Alexander’s release would usually cost 500 hostages, but as a goodwill gesture, Hamas would free him for 250 prisoners in Israeli jails, including 100 who are serving life sentences.
Boehler came back with an offer of 100 prisoners serving life sentences, and 150 other Palestinian prisoners in the future.
Israel had caught wind of the talks, and Boehler received an angry phone call from Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer about the talks and that they were kept from Israel.
The next day, on March 5, “two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions” leaked to Axios that the US was talking with Hamas.
The Ynet outlet reported that US officials believe that Israel was behind the leak to torpedo the talks.
Boehler had flown to Doha in January, hoping to meet senior Hamas officials, but the White House canceled the meeting after Israel found out and pushed for it to be called off, according to two sources.
The final meeting took place the same day, with the US offering 100 Palestinian prisoners, with no guarantee that they were serving life sentences. Hamas would release the bodies of the four slain US-Israeli hostages it was holding in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children, the renewal of aid to Gaza, and the arrival of US special envoy Steve Witkoff to Qatar to start talks about Phase 2 of the January ceasefire deal, which could end the war in Gaza.
Al-Hayya reportedly said that Hamas was also open to a five-to-10 year truce with Israel.
Boehler told al-Hayya that it was his final offer, and if it wasn’t accepted by the time he took off later that day, the deal might not be on the table any longer. Al-Hayya responded that he wanted to accept, but that Hamas would not.
Hamas, in an official statement on March 14, said that it agreed to a proposal to release Alexander and the four bodies of the other dual nationals. Witkoff publicly rejected the deal the next day and called on the terror group to accept his bridging proposal that would see multiple living hostages and Alexander released at the outset of an extended ceasefire.
Hamas did not accept that deal.
The Times of Israel Community.