Donald Trump said 21-year-old Edan Alexander, who was kidnapped from his military base in southern Israel during Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023, was “coming home to his parents”. US-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander has been released and handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to reports. Reuters has been told by sources familiar with the case that the hostage was handed over by Hamas’ armed wing. Earlier, it was reported that Alexander was en route to Israeli territory via the Kissufim border crossing with Gaza. More from the news conference with US President Trump. Speaking about the imminent release of hostage Edan Alexander, Trump said he hopes “other hostages” will be released. Meanwhile, sources have told Reuters that Alexander is “en route to Israeli territory through [the] Kissufim crossing with Gaza”. We have more comments from US President Donald Trump on the expected release of hostage Edan Alexander today. Trump said that the US-Israeli citizen was expected to be released by Hamas in the “next two hours” or “sometime today”, the Associated Press reports. “He’s coming home to his parents, which is really great news,” Trump told reporters at the White House shortly before he was scheduled to depart for a visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Trump credited his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in helping secure the release of Alexander, 21. The president said that Witkoff, a New York real estate developer turned diplomat, knew “very little about the subject matter” but learned quickly. “He has a special way about him,” Trump said of Witkoff. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump on Monday for helping to secure the expected release of a US-Israeli hostage from Gaza, which Hamas has said was part of direct contact with the Americans. A statement from Netanyahu’s office said that in a phone call, he “thanked President Trump for his assistance in the release of (Israeli military) soldier Edan Alexander”, a 21-year-old who has been held in the Gaza Strip since Hamas’s October 2023 attack. Here are some images coming to us over the wires. US President Donald Trump has said Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander is to be freed in “about two hours”, Agence France-Presse reports. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would send mediators to Qatar on Tuesday to discuss the release of hostages held in Gaza after Hamas announced the release of US-Israeli Edan Alexander. Following a meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff and ambassador Mike Huckabee, “the Prime Minister instructed to send a negotiation delegation to Doha tomorrow”, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Monday. The charity ActionAid has said the announcement that the entire Gaza strip is at high risk of collapsing in famine “is a stain on humanity’s conscience”. Referring to the IPC snapshot released today, ActionAid said: Our colleagues, partners and the women and girls we work with in Gaza tell us that the food situation is already utterly catastrophic and that even finding one meal a day is increasingly difficult. Thousands of children are being treated for acute malnutrition and at least 57 people have reportedly starved to death since the total blockade started. The Palestinian Authority has already declared the strip to be in famine. The charity added there was “nothing inevitable” about the crisis, adding: The Israeli authorities could decide right now to open up the borders and let the life-saving aid that is ready and waiting to be delivered in. The international community must wake up to the severity of the situation and do everything in its power to pressure them to do so. We need urgent action to stop any more people starving to death, and a permanent end to the war, now – the alternative is unthinkable. Palestinians wait in long queues to receive pots of food distributed by charitable organisations in Gaza City. The war on Hamas must not stop and aid should not be let into Gaza, Israel’s far right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Monday, amid speculation in Israel that a deal to release a US-Israeli hostage could lead to a new ceasefire. In broadcast remarks from the Israeli parliament, Ben-Gvir said defeating Hamas was the top goal of the war and the only way for Israel to return its hostages from Gaza. Here are some images coming to us over the wires. An Israeli official discussing the release of hostage Edan Alexander said he “will be transferred by a special unit to the initial reception facility in Re’im” near the Gaza border in southern Israel”. The official, who requested anonymity, added that Alexander would “receive initial medical and psychological care” from army medical professionals before reuniting with his family, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. “Edan Alexander’s family members will wait for him at the initial reception facility... and afterwards, they will be airlifted together with Edan to continue his treatment at Ichilov Hospital” in Tel Aviv, the official said. “Edan Alexander’s return will follow the same procedure used in previous hostage returns,” the Israeli official said. This would involve “a transfer from the Red Cross to a special (Israeli army) unit, through the initial reception facility in Re’im, and from there an air transfer to the hospital for continued treatment”, he said. A Hamas source told AFP that mediators informed the group that Israel would pause military operations for the handover of the 21-year-old soldier. A source close to the militant group told AFP that Hamas had decided not to hold a public ceremony for the handover, as it had for previous hostage releases. Israel’s President Isaac Herzog called on the international community to help with its new plan to distribute aid directly to the people of Gaza and cut out the Palestinian group Hamas from the process, Reuters reports. “What Israel has offered, in order to prevent Hamas from controlling (humanitarian aid) distribution ... is a new mechanism which will enable the distribution of aid directly to the people of Gaza,” Herzog said at an event in Berlin. “We call upon the international community, international NGOs and the UN to study the plan in depth and join us,” he said, speaking alongside German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who called for the immediate resumption of aid to Gaza, which Israel has halted since the beginning of March. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, said it had sold all of its shares in Israel’s Paz Retail and Energy because the company owns and operates infrastructure supplying fuel to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Reuters reports. The divestment, announced on Sunday, was the second of its kind by the fund after its ethics watchdog in August adopted a tougher interpretation of standards for businesses that aid Israel’s operations in the occupied Palestinian territories. by Cy Neff Around two dozen California State University students began a hunger strike last week to protest starvation in Gaza due to Israel’s aid blockade, marking the latest act of political protest on college campuses. The strikers – students from San Jose State, Sacramento State, San Francisco State and CSU Long Beach – began their fast on 5 May “We, the students of San Francisco, Sacramento, Long Beach, and San Jose State Universities, are beginning a united hunger strike in solidarity with the two million Palestinians at risk of starvation in Gaza,” Students for Justice in Palestine wrote in a press release. They are also pushing the university system to divest from weapons manufacturers, among other stated goals. The hunger strikes come as Israel’s aid blockade in Gaza passes its second month, and is facing mounting international criticism for the millions of Palestinians pushed toward famine, as well as Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich’s, recent assertion that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed.” Read the full report here: Humanitarian organisation CARE International UK has said the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza is “shameful”. Responding to the latest IPC snapshot, revealing Palestinians are still facing “a critical risk of famine”, Jolien Veldwijk, country director for CARE International in Palestine, said: It is unconscionable that this man-made situation will see Palestinians across Gaza – many of whom are already skin and bones – face the gruelling fate of slow, painful starvation and the shadow of death from hunger. He added: After more than 18 months of ever-deepening suffering in Gaza and two months of total siege we urge the international community to exhaust every effort to secure an immediate and lasting ceasefire and a return of the hostages. To prevent continued starvation and further death, Israel must allow humanitarian aid to flow at scale, safely and unhindered into and throughout Gaza. Helen McEachern, CEO of CARE International UK, said: The ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza is shameful. The UK cannot stand by and watch as people starve – Palestinians are already dying daily from hunger as food rots in warehouses just over the border. This cruelty cannot and must not continue – neither should the UK’s support. The UK Government must now stop all arms sales to Israel. How long must Palestinians wait for Governments like the UK to stop fuelling this war? Food security experts say the Gaza Strip is at critical risk of famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military campaign. The latest snapshot from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises, says outright famine is the mostly likely scenario unless conditions change, the Associated Press reports. The IPC snapshot says: The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people (one in five) facing starvation. It adds that another million are at “emergency” levels of hunger. The IPC added that this marks a “significant deterioration” compared to the previous IPC analysis (released in October 2024) and the already dire conditions detected between 1 April and 10 May 2025. Israel has banned any food, shelter, medicine or other goods from entering the Palestinian territory for the past 10 weeks, even as it carries out waves of airstrikes and ground operations. At least 29 Palestinians have been killed and 94 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Four bodies of people killed in previous Israeli attacks were also recovered over the past day, it added, Al Jazeera reports. Israel has asked judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to withdraw arrest warrants against its prime minister and former defence minister while the ICC reviews Israeli challenges to its jurisdiction over the conduct of the Gaza war, Reuters reports. Documents published on the ICC website late on Sunday also show Israel has asked the court to order the prosecution to suspend its investigation into alleged atrocity crimes in the Palestinian Territories. The documents are dated 9 May and signed by Israeli deputy attorney general Gilad Noam. The ICC issued arrest warrants on 21 November for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. The ICC said in February that judges had withdrawn the arrest warrant for al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, following credible reports of his death. Israel, which rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza, is contesting the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant Fighting will pause to allow for Edan Alexander’s safe passage, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, a day after Israel was told of Hamas’ decision to free the last surviving US hostage in Gaza as a goodwill gesture to President Donald Trump. The release, after four-way talks between Hamas, the United States, Egypt and Qatar, could open the way to freeing the remaining 59 hostages held in the Gaza Strip, 19 months after Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Reuters reports. But Netanyahu said Israel had agreed only to allow safe passage for Alexander, and its forces would continue recently announced preparations to step up operations there. Israeli jets continued to pound Gaza before the expected release, killing at least 16 people sheltering in a school housing displaced families in Jabalia, local health authorities said. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report. Israel’s public broadcaster Kan says Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has landed in Israel, Al Jazeera reports. Kan added that Witkoff is expected to meet Edan Alexander following his release and will speak with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. An Israeli official said that President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Israel on Monday and would meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet to discuss nuclear talks with Iran and efforts to free more hostages. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press in line with regulations. Edan Alexander, the Israeli-American soldier who was kidnapped on 7 October 2023, is expected to be released today. Alexander was born in Israel but raised in the US by Israeli parents. He moved to Israel in 2022 after graduating from high school and enlisted in the Israeli military. His parents and two younger siblings still live in Tenafly, New Jersey. Alexander was snatched from his military base in southern Israel during Hamas’ attack on 7 October 2023. His expected release would be the first since Israel shattered an eight-week ceasefire with Hamas in March when it unleashed fierce strikes on Gaza, which have killed hundreds, the Associated Press reports. Here are some photographs coming to us over the wires of Palestinians inspecting the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip. The relatives of Israeli hostages have welcomed the announcement that Hamas are to free an American-Israeli hostage – but there is also unease, the Associated Press reports. Some have said Edan Alexander was singled out for freedom because of his American citizenship. “Trump is rescuing him. Who will rescue Gali and Ziv?,” Maccabit Mayer, the aunt of sibling hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, told Israeli Army Radio on Monday, referring to US President Trump. She said she was sorry the twin brothers don’t have “the right citizenship.” The family of Edan Alexander has called on Israel to release all of the remaining hostages “without delay”, in a message relayed by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “No hostage must be left behind,” the family said. An Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip killed at least 16 people early on Monday, mostly women and children, according to local health officials. At least five children and four women were among those killed in the strike on a school in the Jabaliya area, the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said. It also said that a number of people were wounded, according to reporting from the Associated Press. It comes after Hamas announced on Sunday that it would release the last living American hostage in Gaza, Edan Alexander, an Israeli-American soldier who was kidnapped on 7 October 2023, a move that key Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt called an encouraging step towards a return to ceasefire talks. US president Donald Trump confirmed the news in a social media post, writing that Alexander, 21, “is coming home to his family”. Trump is heading to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week. In other news: Relatives of Israeli hostages welcomed the announcement that an American-Israeli hostage would be freed by Hamas but there remain fears over the fate of the other 23 living and roughly 35 dead captives who remain in Gaza. Israel has not agreed to any ceasefire or release of prisoners with Hamas, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, ahead of the expected release of Edan Alexander. Netanyahu said Israel had only agreed to allow safe passage for Alexander and its forces would continue recently announced preparations to step up operations there. “The negotiations will continue under fire, during preparations for an intensification of the fighting,” his office said. Israel’s blockade on food and other supplies entering Gaza is now in its third month, and hospitals are unable to provide food. Aid groups say malnutrition is on the rise across Gaza. Food distributions have ended and charity kitchens are rapidly closing. Markets are empty of almost everything but canned goods and small amounts of vegetables, and prices have been rising.
Author: Tom Ambrose (now) and Jane Clinton (earlier)