After 584 days as a hostage in Gaza, Edan Alexander is home. Below you will see an IDF video where he is reunited with his family for the first time. There are now 58 hostages remaining in Gaza, 20 are assumed to be alive.
Per Israeli media outlet YNet: According to a report by public broadcaster Kan, the Israeli-American was referred to by his Hamas captors as “the American.” He was subjected to severe torture during lengthy interrogations and was held alongside other hostages in southern Gaza, confined to a tunnel with no access to daylight.
For a prolonged period, he was locked in a cage, shackled by his hands and feet, which explains why he struggled to walk on his own upon release, due to prolonged physical weakness and restraint. Like other hostages, he suffered from extreme food deprivation, and only in recent months, apparently in preparation for his release, did his Hamas captors begin providing him with more food.
Watch as Edan proudly walks towards his family members carrying a flag from both nations.
Steve Witkoff gifted released hostage Edan Alexander a Star of David necklace that belonged to his late son, Andrew, who passed away in 2011. “You’d be doing my son a great honor if you continue to wear it,” he told Edan.
Israel/Middle East Related Articles
The Untold Story of How Israel Failed on October 7 by Jonathan Foreman with Commentary
The Hebrew word mechdal... signifies a great catastrophe for which human beings are responsible by inaction, error, or irresponsibility... The October 7, 2023, attack was an even greater mechdal.”
That the attacks did not kill many more people... was largely thanks to the extraordinary heroism of civilian defense teams, local police units, and small groups of soldiers... even as nearby IDF garrisons were overrun.
Israel’s Dunkirk-in-reverse: the heroic response of hundreds of Israelis... who did not wait for orders but raced down to the Gaza envelope in private vehicles, rifles and pistols in hand.
Hamas hid its invasion preparations in plain sight... Female observers warned commanders for months. Their alerts were dismissed as ‘hysterical.’
The warnings that were delivered that night by the Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service) and the army’s Military Intelligence Directorate were mostly based on “anomalies” such as the sudden activation of dozens of mobile phone SIM cards by known Hamas commanders. Neither agency suggested any kind of mobilization or said it suspected an imminent major attack of any kind, let alone one of unprecedented size—this despite an accumulation of suggestive evidence over the previous weeks and months.
The fact is that Hamas hid its invasion preparations in plain sight…All Hamas really kept secret was the precise timing of its attack—a date that, in hindsight, looks like an obvious choice given the traditional Islamist obsession with anniversaries and the State of Israel’s 21st-century practice of essentially disarming itself on religious holidays.
The devotion to the conceptsia—the belief that Hamas was deterred and co-opted—blinded Israeli leadership to repeated signs of an impending attack.
The Failure of Imagination. During conversations with Israeli officials at various levels of seniority, I was told repeatedly that a mass incursion or invasion from Gaza had seemed so unlikely as to be almost inconceivable.
It is now clear that some of Hamas’s rocket barrages in the months and even years before October 7 were part of a program of intelligence-gathering, in accordance with the old Soviet military doctrine of Razvedka Boyem, or “reconnaissance through battle.”
The IDF’s excessive faith in high-tech border systems... meant that $50 drones and bulldozers could neutralize Israel’s billion-shekel defenses.
On October 7, fewer than 800 IDF troops guarded the entire Gaza border. Many posts had no sentries, locked armories, and troops on holiday leave.
Hamas’s forces had five hours of freedom to kill, rape, and kidnap in some communities—despite the IDF’s bases being within a 40-minute drive.
Nothing stood between Hamas and Tel Aviv, Haifa, or Jerusalem—except a few police battles that stopped convoys from heading north.
The overrunning of Reim Base was arguably Hamas’s most important military success on October 7—one that seems especially impressive given that in all of Israel’s wars, including that of 1973, no Arab army ever succeeded in overrunning and capturing even a small IDF post, let alone a divisional headquarters. The virtually unguarded Reim Base was not only the coordination node for IDF forces in the Gaza region, but the HQ on which the Kiriya (again, Israel’s Pentagon) depended for information about the entire area of operations.
As awful as things were, they could have been worse. It was fortunate that, unlike the army, the often maligned Israel Police Service not only had a contingency plan for a large-scale Hamas attack, but practiced dealing with one, holding one such exercise in September 2023…Had even a few pick-up trucks reached those cities and wrought just the limited slaughter achieved in Sderot and Ofakim, the impact would have been enormous.
Palestinian-US political activist operated key backchannel in Edan Alexander’s release by Jacob Magin with the Times of Israel
Palestinian-American political activist Bishara Bahbah was the third-party mediator between US President Donald Trump’s administration and Hamas who succeeded in convincing the terror group to release American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander on Monday, four officials familiar with the matter confirmed to The Times of Israel
Earlier this year, the late Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat’s wife Suha gave Bahbah the phone number of Hamas’s Ghazi Hamad, initiating contact with the senior official based outside of Gaza, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.
Last month, Hamad reached out to Bahbah, seeking his assistance in connecting with US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff in order to discuss efforts to bring about a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
While Bahbah told Hamad that an end to the war would start with Hamas releasing the last living American hostage, Alexander, the terror organization for weeks sought to extract concessions from Israel in exchange for the 21-year-old IDF soldier.
Last week, Bahbah passed along a message from Witkoff to Hamad, warning that time was not on Hamas’s side and calling for Alexander’s release before Trump departed for the Mideast on Monday.
Over the weekend, Hamas informed Bahbah that it agreed to release Alexander unconditionally but wanted Witkoff to know that the step should not be viewed as a one-off, the sources said. Hamad stressed to Bahbah that Hamas was ready to work with the Trump administration to secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, with security arrangements to ensure a years-long calm until a final settlement of the conflict is reached, the sources said.
On Sunday, Hamad told Bahbah that Hamas was prepared to move ahead with Alexander’s release, saying it had located him after claiming to have lost contact with his captors.
Link: Palestinian-US political activist operated key backchannel in Edan Alexander's release
Antisemitism
ICC Set Plan to Charge Netanyahu Just After Prosecutor Was Accused of Sexual Assault by Matthew Dalton with The Wall Street Journal – The bold step to pursue the Israeli leader for war crimes built support at the international court for prosecutor Karim Khan as allegations of sexual abuse were surfacing. Khan denies any misconduct.
Just 2½ weeks after Khan learned of the allegations against him last spring, he surprised Israeli and U.S. officials by announcing the most dramatic arrest warrant in the court’s history—for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The timing of the announcement has spurred questions about whether Khan was aiming to protect himself from the sexual-assault allegations... The day before announcing the warrant application, Khan abruptly canceled a trip to Israel and Gaza that he had previously said was important to make his decision.
Khan allegedly tried to get his accuser to disavow [her allegations] by telling her the charges would hurt the Palestinian investigation... ‘Think about the Palestinian arrest warrants,’ she said he told her.
Staff on the [ICC] call, including Khan’s accuser, denounced Khan’s refusal to take leave. ‘The moral legitimacy of the institution is being eroded day-by-day,’ said one ICC official.
Some ICC officials said they fear his presence at the court is discouraging potential witnesses from cooperating with the investigation.
The decision to go after Netanyahu has sparked a fierce debate inside and outside the ICC about whether Khan has jeopardized the court, given Israel’s clout in Washington, the country’s support in Europe and the slim chance that Netanyahu would ever be arrested.
Officials in Israel and the U.S., and some inside the ICC, were stunned by the announcement.
Link: ICC Set Plan to Charge Netanyahu Just After Prosecutor Was Accused of Sexual Assault
The West’s two-tier international law doesn’t harm just Israel by Shany Mor with The Jewish Chronicle
Nowhere in international law are belligerent parties in a war obligated to ensure supplies and logistics for their enemies. In most wars, the opposite is the case.
There is absolutely no sense in which Israel was in occupation of any of Gaza when Hamas launched its attack on October 7, 2023... It’s hard to imagine a territory being occupied by one army without soldiers on the ground and where another local force... holds dozens of hostages for more than a year.
By insisting that Hamas can’t lose any territory in the war it launched, the international community has invented a norm that never before existed and removed one of the few levers Israel has to pressure it to end the war and release the hostages.
“It’s annoying to hear international law invoked against Israel... But it’s not the hypocrisy that should bother us most. These commitments have real impacts on the course of the war... They made the plight of the hostages much worse and much longer. They made the war much longer than necessary and much deadlier for both sides.
Making it impossible to defeat Hamas in the war it itself launched in 2023 won’t bring peace to Gaza; it will only ensure that the next war will be even bloodier.
Link: The West’s two-tier international law doesn’t harm just Israel
Judge orders American Muslims for Palestine to disclose financial documents by Matthew Kassel with Jewish Insider
A Richmond, Va., judge has issued a new court order ruling that a pro-Palestinian advocacy group with alleged ties to Hamas must finally turn over closely guarded financial documents sought in an ongoing investigation brought by Virginia’s attorney general.
The decision, issued on Friday, is a major blow for American Muslims for Palestine, a Virginia-based nonprofit group that has drawn a growing number of legal challenges in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks
Jason Miyares, the Republican attorney general of Virginia probing AMP’s fundraising operations over alleged links to terror groups, had filed a petition in January to enforce a previous order compelling the organization to produce sensitive records that could shed light on its widely scrutinized but closely held donor network.
The group is now required to comply with the demand for records, notwithstanding its pending appeal before the court, the new ruling states.
More broadly, the new ruling indicates that AMP has now exhausted all of the available legal delay tactics it has used to resist the attorney general’s efforts to procure documents as part of a winding investigation launched weeks after the Oct. 7 attacks.
…AMP continues to face an array of civil lawsuits as well as state and federal probes threatening to dismantle one of the nation’s top pro-Palestinian advocacy organizations as it has taken a leading role in anti-Israel protests on college campuses across the country.
Link: Judge orders American Muslims for Palestine to disclose financial documents
Casualties (no change)
1,872 Israelis have been killed including 856 IDF soldiers and police since October 7th
The South: 418 IDF soldiers (no change since Sunday) during the ground operation in Gaza have been killed. The toll includes three police officers (two of which were killed in a hostage rescue mission) and two Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
The North: 132 Israelis (84 IDF soldiers) have been killed during the war in Northern Israel
The West Bank: 63 Israelis (27 IDF and Israeli security forces)
Additional Information (according to the IDF):
5,882 (+24 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 878 (+6 since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
2,663 (+17 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 515 (+5 since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
The Gaza Casualty Count: According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 52,862 total deaths have been reported, with a civilian/combatant ratio: 1:1.
[MUST READ] Report: Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza by Andrew Fox with The Henry Jackson Society
On October 7th, Ohad Hemo with Channel 12 Israel News – the country’s largest news network, a leading expert on Palestinian and Arab affairs, mentioned an estimate from Hamas: around 80% of those killed in Gaza are members of the organization and their families.”
Read this well documented piece from Tablet published in March of 2024: How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers
The Associated Press, an outlet with a demonstrated anti-Israel bias, conducted an analysis of alleged Gaza death tolls released by the Hamas-controlled "Gaza Health Ministry." The analysis found that "9,940 of the dead – 29% of its April 30 total – were not listed in the data" and that "an additional 1,699 records in the ministry’s April data were incomplete and 22 were duplicates."
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes official details on every civilian and IDF casualty.
Hostage Update (-1)
There are now currently 57 hostages taken on 10/7 currently in captivity in Gaza (there are 58 hostages remaining in total)
Of the 58 hostages still theoretically in Gaza
35 hostages have been confirmed dead and are currently being held in Gaza
Thus, at most, 23 living hostages could still be in Gaza. It has been reported that only 20 are actually alive.
Hamas is now holding the body of 1 IDF soldier who was killed in 2014 (Lt. Hadar Goldin’s body remains held in the Gaza Strip)
20 hostages remain in captivity and have not been declared dead.
4 hostages are Americans: Meet the Four American Hostages Still Held By Hamas: Itay Chen is assumed to have been killed on 10/7, and Gadi Haggai, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Omer Neutra have been confirmed to have been killed.
On October 7th, a total of 251 Israelis were taken hostage.
During the ceasefire deal in November of 2023, 112 hostages were released.
38 hostages were released in the first phase of the 2025 cease fire agreement (including 5 Thai nationals)
194 hostages in total have been released or rescued
The bodies of 40 hostages have been recovered, including 3 mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
8 hostages have been heroically rescued by troops alive
Regular sources include JINSA, FDD, IDF, AIPAC, The Paul Singer Foundation, The Institute for National Security Studies, the Alma Research and Education Center, Yediot, Jerusalem Post, IDF Casualty Count, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Institute for the Study of War, Tablet Magazine, Mosaic Magazine, The Free Press, and the Times of Israel