Edan Alexander due to be released by Hamas
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.
Key events
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.
Neytanyahu thanks Trump for help securing hostage release
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.
Netanyahu to send Gaza negotiators to hostage talks in Qatar
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.
World must act to avert Gaza famine now, demands ActionAid
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.
California State students protest aid blockade in Gaza with hunger strike
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 warn Gaza is at critical risk of famine if Israel doesn’t end its blockade
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.
