April 24, 2025
JERUSALEM (AP) — The terrorist group Hamas said on Friday it has accepted a proposal from mediators to release one living American-Israeli hostage and the bodies of four dual nationals, hostages who had died in captivity. The announcement came as talks continue in Qatar to try to broker the next stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
The group in the Gaza Strip did not immediately specify when the release of soldier Edan Alexander and the four bodies would occur, and other countries party to the agreement did not immediately confirm the Hamas statement.
Alexander was 19 when he was abducted from his base on the border with Gaza in southern Israel during the Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war.
It was not clear which parties had participated in negotiating the deal. The United States, led by the Trump administration's hostage envoy Steve Witkoff, has been pushing for a proposal that would extend the truce and see a limited number of exchanges of hostages for prisoners.
Following the Hamas statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu huddled with top advisers in security consultations, according to an Israeli official who was not authorized to speak on the record about the matter.
The first phase of the ceasefire ended two weeks ago.
Last week, the White House made a surprise announcement, saying that American officials had engaged in “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials, stepping away from a long-held U.S. policy of not directly engaging with the terrorist group. That prompted a terse response from Netanyahu’s office.
It was not immediately clear whether those talks were at all linked to Hamas’ Friday announcement about the release of the American hostage.
The ceasefire has paused the deadliest and most destructive fighting ever between Israel and Hamas. The first phase allowed the return of 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli forces have withdrawn to buffer zones inside Gaza, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza for the first time since early in the war, and hundreds of trucks of aid entered per day until Israel suspended supplies.
Israel has been pressing Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for an extension of the first phase and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas is believed to still have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others, which it is using as bargaining chips in negotiations.
