American-Israeli former hostage Edan Alexander met with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday for the first time since being released from Hamas captivity in May.
In footage of the meeting published by the White House, Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who brokered Alexander’s release, could be heard asking Alexander to share with the president what happened when Trump won the US presidential race in November.
“They immediately took me to a new place, a good place,” said Alexander.
Trump, standing next to his wife Melania, quipped in response: “They weren’t too afraid of [former US president Joe] Biden.”
“We’re very proud that I saved you,” Trump said, adding that securing Alexander’s release was “very important” to the first lady. “Overall, the fact that you’re American had a… big impact here,” he said.
Following the 30-minute meeting with Trump, Alexander said he had urged the president to do whatever he could to secure the release of the remaining 50 hostages, and shared with him the fear that continued fighting in Gaza could endanger those still in captivity, according to comments published by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
“I came to thank the person who is responsible for saving my life,” said Alexander. “I was deeply moved to be in the White House — the same place where my parents had been many times during their fight for my release, but this time together with them.”
“I told the most powerful man in the world what I went through, what my friends there are going through, and asked him to continue doing everything in his power,” said Alexander.
“I shared with the president my fear that continued fighting endangers the hostages, and that I hope he can achieve another historic breakthrough — a comprehensive deal to free them all, all 50 hostages. I told him I’m confident he is the person who can make it happen,” he said.
“I’m deeply moved that I could celebrate my own freedom on the eve of Independence Day,” which the US will mark on Friday, said Alexander, who returned home to Tenafly, New Jersey, in June.
Alexander was accompanied to the White House by his father Adi, mother Yael, sister Mika and brother Roy. Adi Alexander later told Ynet that the meeting was “excellent.”
The president said, “It’s very important to him to get everyone out… those who are alive and those who aren’t. He said: ‘We’re going to make a deal,” said Adi Alexander.
Writing on social media, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid cited a source who was at the meeting as saying Trump told Alexander that the US at one point feared that Alexander had been killed during an Israeli strike on a tunnel where he was held.
Alexander, who managed to escape before the tunnel collapsed on top of him, reportedly told Trump that his life indeed was in danger and that the same case remains for the hostages still held in Gaza, who must be released as soon as possible.
Trump reportedly responded that he is aware of the dire situation of the remaining hostages and is working to quickly secure their release.
According to Ravid, additional White House officials who attended the meeting included US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA chief John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Alexander, 21, came to Israel from the United States to serve as a soldier in the Golani Infantry Brigade. He was abducted from the Kissufim military base on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
At the time of his release, Alexander was the last living US citizen in Hamas captivity. His release was widely viewed as a goodwill gesture by Hamas to Trump, with minimal Israeli involvement.
Responding to her son’s release in May, Yael Alexander pointedly thanked Trump and Witkoff, but not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has publicly refused to end the war in Gaza as part of a hostage deal.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.