Video confirms Israeli hostage Edan Alexander alive, sparking renewed hope

Former hostages who were released last November reported seeing Edan alive, but the Alexanders hadn’t received any updates on their son’s condition since.

By HANNAH SARISOHN, JERUSALEM POST STAFF DECEMBER 1, 2024 23:27 Updated: DECEMBER 1, 2024 23:29

The mother of Israeli hostage Edan Alexander hugs an organizer at a pro-Israel rally, nearly one year after Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, US October 6, 2024. (photo credit: REUTERS/Stephani Spindel)

NEW YORK – Adi and Yael Alexander learned that Hamas released a video of a hostage on Saturday morning in a phone call from an Israeli government representative.

Right away, Adi recognized the hostage in the video to be his 20-year-old son, Edan, a New Jersey-born dual-Israeli citizen who was serving with the Golani Brigade on the Gaza border when he was abducted on October 7.

A second, longer video of Edan shortly followed.

“It was very emotional and disturbing, but we were happy to see him after a year that we didn’t see our son,” Adi said during an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Sunday morning after a whirlwind 24 hours since learning Edan was still alive.

Former hostages who were released last November reported seeing Edan alive, but the Alexanders hadn’t received any updates on their son’s condition since.

EDAN ALEXANDER, a bright 19-year-old from New Jersey, was taken hostage while serving in the IDF. (credit: Courtesy Alexander Family)

After the video was released, Adi and Yael then spoke on the phone with Brett McGurk, President Joe Biden’s special envoy to the Middle East, about the video and Edan’s apparent condition.

Hope for progress in ceasefire

McGurk was instrumental in the negotiations leading to the Israeli-Lebanese ceasefire announced last week and is spearheading ceasefire talks in Gaza.

The Alexanders and families of the six other American hostages will join McGurk and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan for one of their regular calls this week. This week’s call will be the first since the American families last met with Biden in the White House on November 13.

This week’s call will hopefully bring updates and “maybe, potentially, positive news,” Adi said.

Yael spoke with President Isaac Herzog on Saturday, and according to Adi, the Israeli government feels like after the Lebanese ceasefire, the time is right and that they can “potentially execute the ceasefire in Gaza.”

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“And we are really hopeful. I’m not optimistic. I don’t want to use this term any longer,” Adi said. “But we are really hopeful that this is what they’re going to do.”

Adi told the Post that on Saturday, he also spoke with the FBI and a representative from US President-elect Donald Trump’s team, marking the Alexanders’ first conversation with the Trump team since the election.

Trump’s team indicated that they were “shoulder-to-shoulder with the current administration to resolve the issue” and were working 24/7, Adi recounted.

In an interview Sunday morning with CBS, Sullivan said there’s been “good coordination on all aspects of the crisis in the Middle East” between the Biden and Trump teams.

“We felt it was important that we be in touch with them, to keep them up to speed on what’s happening, because this hand-off has got to be smooth, and they, in turn, have reciprocated by being open and transparent and working with us,” Sullivan told CBS’s Major Garrett. “This is how it should be in a transition. This is what we’re going to keep driving for every day that we have left in office.”

Orna Neutra, the mother of New York-born 23-year-old hostage Omer Neutra, told the Post that Trump has a track record from his first administration of getting things done in the Middle East in a way that many other presidents weren’t capable of.

“He’s a deal maker. He’s done it before,” Ronen Neutra said, echoing his wife.

Trump has relationships and has people who have relationships in the region, Orna added.

“We’re just hoping that he uses his leverage. You know, each side has their own leverages,” she continued. “We’re hoping that the combined effort will finally make something move.”

Ronen said he believes the incoming Trump administration understands the sense of urgency and that Trump is receiving the families’ message that a deal cannot wait for inauguration day.

“We sure hope that that’s what’s happening behind the scenes,” he said. “We don’t know.”

The Neutras shared they also learned about the video of Edan directly from an Israeli officer.

Ronen immediately called the Alexanders, saying it was so good hearing their relief of knowing their son was alive.

His conversation with the Alexanders also upped the sense of urgency to make sure that everyone in both the Biden and Trump administrations is “really doing whatever they can.”

It was emotional for them to see that Edan was doing okay, as painful as it was to see him, Ronen said.

“It gives us a sense of hope, after such a long time that his parents didn’t see him,” Ronen said. “And, of course, we’re craving to see our own son. [After] all this struggle that we all have been experiencing… we have to continue; it gives us strength to continue.”