From the Liveblog of
Thursday, April 17, 2025
US envoy: Offer made in direct hostage talks with Hamas was ‘coordinated with Israel’
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
The Trump administration’s hostage envoy Adam Boehler says that the offer he made earlier this year in direct negotiations with Hamas to secure the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander was “coordinated with Israel.”
An Israeli official previously told The Times of Israel that Jerusalem was unaware of the offer made by the US envoy, which was at the root of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer’s anger at Boehler, who held several unprecedented meetings with Hamas leaders earlier this year without informing Israel.
The offer included the release of 100 of the remaining 300 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails in exchange for Alexander, the Israeli official said, confirming reporting from The New York Times.
“I gave Hamas an offer. It was an offer that was decided in the United States, it was coordinated with Israel,” Boehler tells Al Jazeera.
“Hamas, at that time, wasn’t able to get there. Then [US special envoy to the Mideast] Steve [Witkoff] came out and talked about something else, and then [Hamas] came and accepted my offer,” he adds, confirming that Hamas on March 14 had accepted his proposal aimed at securing the release of Alexander along with the bodies of four other Americans.
By then, however, the existence of his talks were leaked and the US moved on to Witkoff’s offer, which was transmitted through Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
“Hamas has been moving too slowly. It’s been not too much, a little late,” Boehler says.
Despite the outcry in Israel over his direct talks with Hamas, Boehler tells Al Jazeera that they still could happen again. “I think it is possible.”
The Times of Israel Community.