Washington D.C. – Washington Post, May 12, 2025
As Edan Alexander is released, nearly two dozen hostages are believed to be alive in Gaza, including a student, a software tester, a bartender and several soldiers.
The last known living American hostage in the Gaza Strip, 21-year-old Edan Alexander, was released Monday as part of an effort by Hamas to secure a ceasefire with Israel, after the group said it had direct contacts with the Trump administration “in the last few days.”
The shattering of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in March leaves uncertain the futures of the remaining hostages, of which 23 are presumed to still be alive in Gaza. Last week, President Donald Trump suggested that the number had fallen to 21. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said that the condition of three hostages is uncertain.
More than 18 months have passed since Hamas militants launched their assault inside Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 into Gaza. Since then, more than half of the hostages have been rescued or released in exchanges for Palestinian prisoners, while dozens of others have been declared dead — amid a war that has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and created a “catastrophic” situation for civilians.
The remaining hostages, all men, were set to be released under a planned second phase of the ceasefire agreement that began in January. But negotiations on that phase hadn’t materialized when Israel resumed its attacks on Gaza on March 18, sparking condemnation from dozens of freed hostages and relatives of those still held captive.
