President Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Hamas’s decision to free Alexander is a goodwill gesture to the US and Donald Trump ahead of his Mideast trip.
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
The last surviving American-Israeli hostage in Gaza, released on Monday, may travel to Qatar to meet with US President Donald Trump during his Mideast visit if his health permits, Edan Alexander’s family said shortly after his release.
“I’m very happy he’ll meet Trump, who made every effort and is a good emissary of the Holy One, blessed be He. Thank God the administration cared about him,” Alexander’s grandmother, Varda Ben Baruch, told Ynet.
The release of Alexander was accomplished without a corresponding exchange of Palestinian prisoners as has been in previous hostage releases.
Instead, Hamas’s decision to free Alexander is apparently a goodwill gesture to the US and Donald Trump ahead of his Mideast trip.
Israel is not on Trump’s trip itinerary, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has visited the White House twice since Trump’s second presidential term began last January. Trump will visit Riyadh, Doha, and Abu Dhabi this week.
Whether Alexander will meet with Trump in Qatar depends on his recovery. Although he could walk, he required assistance from Red Cross workers.
One Israeli official described Alexander’s condition as “poor.”
Alexander said he was confined to a cage, handcuffed and tortured while in captivity, Kan News reported.
The IDF soldier was confined for extended periods and interrogated by his Hamas captors for weeks in the period following the October 7th massacre. He was given very little food and was held without regular sunlight exposure.
After Hamas transferred Alexander to the International Committee of the Red Cross, he was taken by IDF special forces inside Gaza and from there to the Re’im military base.
At the IDF facility near Re’im, Alexander was given a physical and mental exam before meeting with family members who traveled from the US to Israel to greet him.
A military helicopter will bring him to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital).
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