Former American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander was among the first Israeli captives to be taken into Gaza on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel, and was able to be a calming presence for the hostages who arrived after him, his parents said in an interview aired Saturday evening, days after his release.

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 news outlet, broadcast on Saturday evening, Alexander’s parents, Yael and Adi, discussed the experience of discovering, without much notice, that their son was set to be released from captivity, and recounted some of what he has told them since his return on Monday, May 12.

Alexander, a dual citizen who grew up in New Jersey, was serving in the IDF’s Golani Brigade at the time of his abduction. He was kidnapped from his base near the Gaza border community of Nirim, known as the White House post, during the October 7 onslaught.

He was freed from Gaza following indirect talks between the US and Hamas, which sidelined Israeli officials.

Upon his abduction into Gaza, Alexander was left in a tunnel alone, as he was the first Israeli hostage to reach that particular area, his father Adi told Channel 12.

He said that “When the Nir Oz-niks (hostages from Kibbutz Nir Oz) and the Thai workers arrived — he was the one who greeted them first.”

“They arrived very frightened,” Adi said,” recounting that the abducted civilians “were very relieved to see an IDF soldier in the tunnel, that he gave them a sense of calm, and had an air of authority because he was in uniform.”

He said that his son had been “relieved” when he was taken to the tunnels in Gaza, because “he was very afraid that they would simply execute him…that they would take revenge on him.”

The first few weeks of captivity were “very hard” for Alexander, his parents said, with Yael noting that he underwent interrogation.

In one instance, the tunnel Alexander was being held in collapsed, injuring his shoulder and killing a number of his captors, Adi shared.

“It was one of the moments when he thought he was essentially done for. It was a miracle he survived,” he said.

Since Alexander’s release, small amounts of information have come out about his time in captivity, and Channel 12 reported earlier this week that when he was abducted, Alexander had been alone and facing off against 30 terrorists at his IDF outpost.

The news outlet also reported that the 21-year-old freed captive has told family members his first year in captivity was “hell,” as he was moved repeatedly, spending time in tunnels, apartments, mosques and tents for displaced Gazans.

In the latter, conditions were particularly bad and he drank sea water and dirty bread.

His captors once moved him by hiding him in a donkey-pulled cart, according to the report, which added that his face was covered and his captors disguised themselves as women.

Speaking to Channel 12, however, Adi noted that being American had eventually worked to his son’s favor, as his conditions began to improve following US President Donald Trump’s election victory and he was moved to a new, slightly improved location.

Earlier this week, Alexander’s aunt Sharon Senyor had told the Ynet news site that with Trump’s return to the White House in January, her nephew’s captors had started feeding him more, ensuring that he gained weight as the US was actively pushing for his release.

Asked whether Alexander had been held with any prominent Hamas figures, Adi said he thinks this was the case, but did not elaborate further.

The indirect negotiations between the US and Hamas were kept entirely under wraps until the deal had been finalized, so much so that Alexander’s parents were only informed of the agreement minutes before the rest of the world was.

“I looked at my phone, it was on silent, and I saw eight missed calls from [US special envoy for the Middle East, Steve] Witkoff,” Adi recalled. “Every possible call — a regular call, a WhatsApp call, everything.”

“I immediately called him back. He said to me, ‘Adi, listen to me closely. In the next ten minutes, Hamas is going to publish a message saying that Edan will be released tomorrow.'”

“He told us to immediately turn on the television,” Yael interjected.

“We were going crazy, within a few minutes it was out across all the outlets, and we were already looking for tickets to Israel,” said Adi.

Asked if the reunion with her son at the Re’im facility next to the Gaza border was everything she had imagined it would be, Yael said simply: “Yes. Better, even.”

You imagine it “countless times, but you never know what’s going to happen,” she elaborated. “Edan couldn’t stop smiling, and to see him like that, truly joyful, it was an incredible moment.”

As for his well-being, Adi said Alexander has returned to them “more or less the same child as he was before October 7.”

“A little paler, a little thinner, he still needs some treatment, but he’s the same child,” he said.

Since his return, Alexander has been grappling with the knowledge that dozens of hostages have yet to be released, Yael said.

“Edan tells me, ‘Mom this doesn’t make sense, we have to get everyone out of there, it doesn’t make sense that there are people who are still there,'” she said. “He said, ‘This is just not normal.'”

She said that she hoped her son’s release would now be the key to freeing the remaining 58 hostages, noting that the relevant parties were now “working feverishly” to make it happen.

The Alexander family “will continue pushing and pushing” on behalf of the remaining hostage families, “because everyone needs to return home to their families.

“I want to see this happen already for the rest of the families, for all the 59 hostages to return already, and then everyone will feel like this, this ‘high’ in their bodies,” she said. “I wish it would happen already, that it would happen tomorrow, that it would happen today. That it would happen this second.”