The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed that it “facilitated the safe transfer of a hostage from Gaza to Israeli authorities”.
Reuters reported that the Israeli military also confirmed receiving the US-Israeli citizen hostage Edan Alexander.
Key events
Israel’s president Isaac Herzog said he watched “with great emotion” the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander “from darkness to light”.
“Welcome home, Edan. We waited for you so long,” Herzog wrote in a post on X.
He said he watched Alexander’s release with Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz. Herzog added:
I send a huge hug to your heroic parents, incredible grandmother, and your entire family.
Merz welcomed Herzog for a meeting in Berlin earlier today, and noted that the Israeli president is the first foreign leader he has hosted since taking office last week.
Herzog is scheduled to be hosted by German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier for a state dinner this evening, then return to Israel tomorrow morning.
Gaza is at “critical risk of famine”, food security experts have warned, 10 weeks after Israel imposed a blockade on the devastated Palestinian territory, cutting off all supplies including food, medicine, shelter and fuel.
In its most recent report, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said on Monday there had been a “major deterioration” in the food security situation in Gaza since its last assessment in October 2024 and that Palestinians living there faced “a critical risk of famine”.
The IPC, a consortium of independent specialists tasked by the UN and international NGOs with assessing the risk of famine in crises worldwide, said:
Goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks. The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people – one in five – facing starvation.
Aid workers in Gaza told the Guardian that prices for essentials had risen further in recent days, warehouses were empty and humanitarian teams treating malnourished children were being forced to divide rations designed for one between two patients to give both a chance of survival.
Jonathan Crickx, a spokesperson for Unicef speaking from southern Gaza, said:
The stocks we brought in during the (two-month-long) ceasefire are running very low. We have treated more than 11,000 children since the beginning of the year … In coming weeks, we fear we will see more children dying.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it welcomes the release of Edan Alexander after 584 days of captivity.
A statement from the group reads:
We embrace you, Edan, and are so glad you are home. We hope your return is the beginning of a comprehensive agreement that is needed to bring all 58 hostages home.
Benjamin Netanyahu has credited the release of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander to Israeli military pressure and “political pressure” from the US president, Donald Trump.
Netanyahu, in a video statement published by his office, said:
This is a very emotional moment – Edan Alexander has come home. We embrace him, and we embrace his family. This was achieved thanks to our military pressure and the political pressure exerted by President Trump. This is a winning combination.
The Israeli prime minister added that he had spoken with Trump, who reaffirmed his commitment to Israel and promised to work “in close cooperation” to release the remaining hostages and defeat Hamas.
Edan Alexander, the Israeli-American hostage who was released earlier today, has arrived at an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) facility near the border community of Re’im in southern Israel.
An IDF statement says Alexander will undergo an initial physical and mental checkup and be reunited with his family after he was escorted out of Gaza by Israeli troops.
His father, Adi Alexander, was taken by an Israeli air force helicopter to Re’im shortly after arriving in the country from the US, the Times of Israel reports, citing an Israeli defence official.
His mother arrived at the Re’im base earlier today.
Gaza is at “critical risk of famine”, food security experts have warned, 10 weeks after Israel imposed a blockade on the devastated Palestinian territory, cutting off all supplies including food, medicine, shelter and fuel.
In its most recent report, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said on Monday there had been a “major deterioration” in the food security situation in Gaza since its last assessment in October 2024 and that Palestinians living there faced “a critical risk of famine”.
“Goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks. The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people – one in five – facing starvation,” said the IPC, a consortium of independent specialists tasked by the UN and international NGOs with assessing the risk of famine in crises worldwide.
Israel imposed its strict blockade in early March, after the end of the first phase of a supposed three-phase ceasefire. Just over two weeks later, a new wave of attacks by the Israeli military definitively ended the truce.
Faisal Ali
US president Donald Trump has said he is considering lifting sanctions on Syria, following the UK’s lead, which removed some of its own sanctions in late April.
Speaking at a press conference at the White House, Trump said he was mulling the move after Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, raised the issue.
Trump said: “We may take them off of Syria, because we want to give them a fresh start.”
He added: “President Erdogan’s asked me about that, many people have asked me about that because the way we have them sanctioned doesn’t really them much of a start. We want to see if we can help them out.”
Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, visited Paris last week, where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron, who similarly voiced his support for lifting EU-wide sanctions on the new government.
After their meeting, Macron said that if al-Sharaa “continues on his path” and guarantees were provided that international funds would be used appropriately, France would push for the lifting of European sanctions and lobby Trump to do the same.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed that it “facilitated the safe transfer of a hostage from Gaza to Israeli authorities”.
Reuters reported that the Israeli military also confirmed receiving the US-Israeli citizen hostage Edan Alexander.
Donald Trump defended his decision to accept the gift of a plane from Qatar at a press conference on Monday.
“They’re giving us a free jet,” said the US president, “I could say no, no, no, don’t give us, I wanna pay you $1bn or $400m or whatever it is, or I could say thank you very much.”
Joseph Gedeon
The White House is unveiling an aggressive drug pricing strategy targeting pharmaceutical companies, promising to dramatically cut prescription drug costs for American consumers.
Donald Trump condemned the current pricing system as a “redistribution” that has allowed drugmakers to exploit US patients, saying he will sign an executive order that would match lower drug prices abroad.
“We are subsidizing others’ healthcare, where they paid a small fraction of what we pay,” the president said in a press conference on Monday, flanked by health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and centers for Medicare and Medicaid services administrator Mehmet Oz.
“Even though the United States is home to only 4% of the world’s population, pharmaceutical companies make more than two-thirds of their profits in America,” Trump said. “That’s not a good thing.”
Examples Trump pointed to included how a single breast cancer drug costs $16,000 in the US, but just $1,600 in Australia, and how the weight loss drug Ozempic costs 10 times more in the US than in other developed countries.
“We’re no longer paying 10 times more than another country,” he said.
People react as they gather watching a live stream on a big screen reporting on the release of Israeli-American soldier hostage Edan Alexander, in hostages square outside the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel …
Donald Trump said 21-year-old Edan Alexander, who was kidnapped from his military base in southern Israel during Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023, was “coming home to his parents”.
US-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander has been released and handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to reports.
Reuters has been told by sources familiar with the case that the hostage was handed over by Hamas’ armed wing.
Earlier, it was reported that Alexander was en route to Israeli territory via the Kissufim border crossing with Gaza.
More from the news conference with US President Trump.
Speaking about the imminent release of hostage Edan Alexander, Trump said he hopes “other hostages” will be released.
Meanwhile, sources have told Reuters that Alexander is “en route to Israeli territory through (the) Kissufim crossing with Gaza”.
We have more comments from US President Donald Trump on the expected release of hostage Edan Alexander today.
Trump said that the US-Israeli citizen was expected to be released by Hamas in the “next two hours” or “sometime today”, the Associated Press reports.
“He’s coming home to his parents, which is really great news,” Trump told reporters at the White House shortly before he was scheduled to depart for a visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Trump credited his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in helping secure the release of Alexander, 21.
The president said that Witkoff, a New York real estate developer turned diplomat, knew “very little about the subject matter” but learned quickly.
“He has a special way about him,” Trump said of Witkoff.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump on Monday for helping to secure the expected release of a US-Israeli hostage from Gaza, which Hamas has said was part of direct contact with the Americans.
A statement from Netanyahu’s office said that in a phone call, he “thanked President Trump for his assistance in the release of (Israeli military) soldier Edan Alexander”, a 21-year-old who has been held in the Gaza Strip since Hamas’s October 2023 attack.
Here are some images coming to us over the wires.
US President Donald Trump has said Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander is to be freed in “about two hours”, Agence France-Presse reports.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would send mediators to Qatar on Tuesday to discuss the release of hostages held in Gaza after Hamas announced the release of US-Israeli Edan Alexander.
Following a meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff and ambassador Mike Huckabee, “the Prime Minister instructed to send a negotiation delegation to Doha tomorrow”, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Monday.