Hamas has announced the imminent release of Edan Alexander, the last known living American hostage held in Gaza. <\/p>\n
The head of Hamas\u2019 negotiating team said they had been in contact with the US administration \u201cduring the past few days\u201d in talks that \u201cshowed high positivity.\u201d <\/p>\n
Following the communications, Hamas announced it will release Alexander as part of the steps toward a ceasefire that will see the crossings into Gaza opened and humanitarian aid brought into Gaza following an Israeli blockade that has lasted more than two months. <\/p>\n
The release could be as early as Monday but is more likely to occur on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the matter. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe movement affirms its readiness to immediately start intensive negotiations, and make serious efforts to reach a final agreement to stop the war, exchange prisoners in an agreed manner, and manage the Gaza Strip by an independent professional body,\u201d Khalil Al-Hayya said in a statement. <\/p>\n
According to a third source familiar with the matter, Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration\u2019s Middle East envoy, will arrive in Tel Aviv Monday morning ahead of the release of Alexander. <\/p>\n
The source called it \u201ca total good will gesture,\u201d especially since it comes with Israel poised to expand its military operations in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Israel is not expected to release any Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Alexander. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to go into immediate peace deal negotiations,\u201d the source said. <\/p>\n
In a closed meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Sunday evening in the Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the members that Hamas may soon release American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, according to another source familiar with the matter. <\/p>\n
The Prime Minister\u2019s Office said in a statement that it had been informed of Hamas\u2019 intention to release Alexander \u201cwithout compensation or conditions.\u201d <\/p>\n
The release is expected to lead to negotiations for the release of more hostages, but Netanyahu\u2019s office said that \u201cnegotiations will take place under fire.\u201d <\/p>\n
News of the announcement of Alexander\u2019s release was first reported by Axios. <\/p>\n
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Alexander\u2019s release must be the beginning of a \u201ccomprehensive\u201d agreement to secure the release of all the hostages. <\/p>\n
\u201cPrime Minister Netanyahu must immediately fulfill the supreme moral obligation \u2013 and the demand of the vast majority of the Israeli public \u2013 to bring everyone back,\u201d the forum said. \u201cPresident (Donald) Trump, you\u2019ve given the families of all the hostages hope. Please, complete your mission and bring them all home.\u201d <\/p>\n
Alexander is one of 59 hostages still held in Gaza. Last week, Trump said that only 21 of the hostages were still alive, fewer than Israel\u2019s official count of 24 living hostages. Trump\u2019s surprise announcement forced Netanyahu to acknowledge that there are three hostages \u201cwhere there is doubt whether they are alive.\u201d <\/p>\n
Among the hostages are four deceased American citizens, including husband and wife Gadi Haggai and Judi Weinstein Haggai, as well as soldiers Itay Chen and Omer Neutra. <\/p>\n
In an interview aired on Saturday evening, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the return of the hostages \u201cthe highest priority that the president has as it related to this country.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a joint statement, Qatar and Egypt called Alexander\u2019s release \u201can encouraging step for the parties to return to the negotiating table for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the release of prisoners and detainees, and ensuring the safe and unhindered flow of aid to address the tragic situation in the Strip.\u201d <\/p>\n
Alexander\u2019s release is \u201cpart of the steps taken\u201d for humanitarian aid to once again flow into Gaza, according to Hamas, following a complete Israeli blockade of the territory that began on March 2. Since then, food stocks have run out at warehouses and food kitchens across Gaza as the enclave has moved closer to famine. <\/p>\n
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said Sunday there were severe shortages of medical supplies, warning that 43% of essential medication is currently out of stock. Emergency rooms and ICUs in Gaza are being forced to operate on \u201cdepleted supplies amid a rise in critical injuries,\u201d the ministry said. <\/p>\n
UNRWA, the main UN agency in Gaza, warned Friday that \u201cbasic humanitarian supplies, including food, fuel, medical aid and vaccines for children, are rapidly running out.\u201d The agency said it has now run out entirely of its stocks of flour and food parcels. <\/p>\n
On Friday, World Chef Kitchen said that its teams in Gaza can \u201cno longer cook meals or bake bread\u201d and are focusing their efforts instead on expanding clean water supply in the enclave. <\/p>\n
The statement from the Israeli Prime Minister\u2019s Office made no mention of resuming the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. <\/p>\n
This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/i> <\/p>\n
Khader Al-Za\u2019anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed to this story.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hamas has announced the imminent release of Edan Alexander, the last known living American hostage held in Gaza. The head of Hamas\u2019 negotiating team said they had been in contact with the US administration \u201cduring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}