Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayyah, said the U.S. government had been in contact for the past several days amid the negotiations.
Hamas says it will release Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza, on Monday.
The move by the terrorist group comes amid an effort to establish a cease-fire with Israel and resume aid delivery into the war-torn territory it controls.
Hamas made the announcement of the release as U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to visit the Middle East this week. He is not scheduled to visit Israel during the trip.
Trump said in a social media post, “This was a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators — Qatar and Egypt — to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones. Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict. I look very much forward to that day of celebration!”
While originally from the United States, Alexander, 21, is an Israeli-American soldier who was captured from his base during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, siege on southern Israel that ignited the war in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not issue an immediate response.
Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayyah, said the U.S. government had been in contact for the past several days.
In a statement, he said that Hamas is ready to “immediately start intensive negotiations” to formalize an enduring cease-fire that would also end the war, make an exchange of Palestinian prisoners and hostages in Gaza, and give authority in Gaza over to an independent body.
Trump and his special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, have referred to Alexander repeatedly in the past few months. Witkoff met with hostage families during a visit to Israel on May 11.
“We want to bring the hostages home, but Israel is not willing to end the war,” he told them. “Israel is prolonging it despite the fact that we don’t see where else we can go and that an agreement must be reached.
“There is currently an opportunity window that we hope Israel and all the mediators will take advantage of. We are putting pressure on all the mediators and doing everything we can to bring the hostages home,” he added.
“Every time they say Edan’s name, it’s like they didn’t forget. They didn’t forget he’s American, and they’re working on it,” Edan’s mother, Yael Alexander, said in February.
During Thanksgiving weekend in November 2024, Hamas released a video of Alexander, according to his mother. She said the video was difficult to watch with his cries and pleas for help but also reassuring as it was the most recent sign that the young soldier is still alive.
Alexander is a native of Tenafly, New Jersey, where his parents and siblings still live. In 2022, he moved to Israel after high school and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces.
There are still 59 hostages inside Gaza, with up to 24 believed to still be alive. Of the approximate 250 Israelis taken hostage in October 2023 most were released previously in cease-fire negotiations or other agreements.
In late April, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Hamas to lay down its arms and hand over control of the Gaza Strip to his organization, which had controlled Gaza before Hamas won elections there in 2006.
Hamas would take control of the territory the following year after relations between the terrorist group and the Palestinian Authority turned sour and a short civil war broke out. Hamas eventually forced the Palestinian Authority out of the Gaza Strip.
No elections have been held in Gaza since 2006. After Hamas assumed power, Israel instituted a land, air, and sea blockade on Gaza, also enforced by Egypt to the south, citing a need to protect citizens from Hamas.
On April 23, Abbas urged Hamas to transfer its rule of Gaza back to the Palestinian Authority and to transform itself into a political party.
While the 89-year-old politician has previously called on his rival Hamas to put its forces under the authority’s control, Hamas has yet to do so since war broke out in the Gaza Strip in late 2023.
Abbas had criticized the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on southern Israel, suggesting that they gave Israel a pretext to destroy the Gaza Strip.
Guy Birchall and The Associated Press contributed to this report.