Controversial Trump envoy is ‘sure’ that American-Israeli hostage is in a ‘decent place’

Earlier in the week, Hamas claimed that it had lost contact with the captors of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

The Trump Administration’s hostage envoy, Adam Boehler, said it would not be in Hamas’ interest to harm the only surviving American hostage, Edan Alexander. “I’m sure he’s in a decent place,” Boehler said.

Earlier in the week, Hamas claimed that it had lost contact with the captors of Alexander.

However, Boehler apparently assumed Hamas still had control over Alexander and speculated that the terror group would fear harming him to avoid harsh reprisals from the US.

“Because I think that Hamas is not dumb… Edan [Alexander] is in a good place… Because if Edan gets sick or has a cold, guess who’s getting blamed? Hamas,” Boehler told Al Jazeera. “I hope no hair on his head is hurt or we’re going to come for them, and it’s not going to be pretty. So I believe Edan is fine.”

The envoy made the comments just days after a propaganda video of Alexander was released, showing that he was clearly malnourished and in a dire emotional state.

Boehler has not spoken publicly about the hostage crisis since his controversial and unprecedented step to negotiate directly with Hamas for the release of Alexander and the bodies of four US hostages without informing Israel.

Before being reinstated recently, Boehler was dismissed as envoy over the controversy and received harsh words from Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer for not keeping Jerusalem in the loop regarding hostage negotiations.

In addition, Boehler referred to Hamas as “nice guys” and said he didn’t “really care about” the Dermer’s concerns. He also said that the United States was “not an agent of Israel.”

“It’s like he’s in Never Never Land,” one Republican senator said of the envoy.

A number of Republican lawmakers have reportedly sought Boehler’s ouster from the administration. “I don’t know why we’d be interested in him doing anything going forward after what we saw,” one said.

Boehler, 51, who first met Jared Kushner during their college years, held a position in the first Trump administration. He served as the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation from 2018 to 2019, before being named CEO of the US International Development Finance Corporation.