Witkoff: Edan Alexander told me Hamas started treating him well after Trump’s election. Hamas is afraid of Trump, and should be

US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff (right) and US hostages envoy Adam Boehler meet with relatives of hostages held in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, May 13, 2025. (Paulina Patimer / Hostages Families Forum)
US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff (right) and US hostages envoy Adam Boehler meet with relatives of hostages held in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, May 13, 2025. (Paulina Patimer / Hostages Families Forum)

US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told the families of hostages held in Gaza earlier today that Hamas is “afraid of Donald Trump” and “should be.”

In brief footage from the lengthy meeting he and US hostage envoy Adam Boehler held with the families in Tel Aviv, broadcast on Kan TV, Witkoff relates that newly released hostage Edan Alexander is “doing better than I would have thought. They actually treated him better. So for those who have relatives who are alive, I think that’s an important data point.”

Witkoff elaborates: “Edan told me that when the president was elected, he began to get treated well. And that’s a really interesting data point — that people evidently are being treated better there, because Hamas is afraid of Donald Trump. And the truth is, they should be.”

In a separate audio clip broadcast on Channel 12, Witkoff is heard telling the families that if a diplomatic deal cannot be reached to solve the hostage crisis, it will be one of the worst failures of his life.

US Special envoy Steve Witkoff, right, and freed hostage Edan Alexander, second right, speak by phone to US President Donald Trump, alongside Alexander’s family from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center on May 13, 2025. (Office of the Special Envoy to the Middle East/X)

“The last thing I wanted to do was to call the Alexander family and give them notice of this thing,” Witkoff says, referring to Edan’s release, “because we thought six weeks ago we were getting him out, by the way, and he was going to be part of a larger release. And we were close. And, like that, it didn’t happen.”

Now, says Witkoff, “everything is moving in the direction of: create a deal to diplomatically solve it. And if we can’t diplomatically solve it, it’s going to be, in my view — I’m not going to speak for Adam, okay — but to me, it will be one of the worst failures that I can ever endure in my life.”

Channel 12 also reports that Alexander, on his release yesterday, immediately told Israeli officials and Witkoff that Matan Zangauker must be urgently returned. He was held with Zangauker for the past eight months, the report says.

Zangauker’s mother, Einav, has said they were held together in the same tunnel, with no other hostages.

Edan’s report on Matan was conveyed to Einav, the TV report says, leaving her in tears and more worried than ever for her son, who has medical issues.

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