While visiting former American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital Tuesday morning, US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff gifted the 21-year-old a Star of David chain that had belonged to Witkoff’s late son Andrew.

Witkoff had himself worn the necklace since his 22-year-old son died in 2011, and gave it to Alexander in a gesture that “moved Edan’s family to tears,” a day after the envoy helped secure his release from Hamas captivity, Channel 12 news reported.

“You would be doing a great honor to my son if you keep wearing this,” Witkoff told Alexander, as he placed the necklace around the dual national’s neck, according to the report.

During the meeting, Witkoff and Alexander also held a 10-minute phone call with US President Donald Trump, who told the freed hostage that the American public “can’t wait” to see him back in the country, the report said.

“Your mother kept pushing me the whole time — but that’s okay. I can’t wait to see you in the White House. The whole nation wants to see you. You’re a bigger celebrity than I am right now. Enjoy it while you can, stay strong. Take it easy,” Trump said to Alexander, according to the network, which reported in Hebrew on the English-language conversation.

“Steve [Witkoff ] did a great job. Honestly, it was me, but I’ll give Steve the credit,” Trump reportedly told Alexander.

Asked by the US president how Hamas had treated him, Alexander reportedly answered: “Since you got elected, my conditions improved dramatically. There are tons of cameras and people around me right now — I can’t share much at the moment. We’ll talk in private.”

Alexander’s release, after 584 days in Hamas captivity, was widely seen as a goodwill gesture by the terror group to Trump, who is due in Doha on Wednesday as part of a state visit to Gulf countries. The soldier was the last known living US citizen in Hamas captivity.

The release jumpstarted negotiations on a Gaza ceasefire-hostage release deal in Doha, where Israeli negotiators were set to arrive on Tuesday. Witkoff and US hostage envoy Adam Boehler are also set to join the talks.

After visiting Alexander on Tuesday, Witkoff told hostages’ families that he and Boehler would not be going to Doha if they were not convinced there was a chance for progress in the talks, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

“Your children are not my children, but now I’ve made them my children,” said Witkoff in a video the Forum published from the meeting. “Like I’m doing something. Feels like a completely unselfish act to help somebody else.”

Alexander, the son of Israeli parents, was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, and came to Israel to serve in the IDF’s Golani infantry Brigade. He was kidnapped 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.

In a statement to the press from Ichilov Hospital Tuesday evening, his mother Yael said her son suffered from lack of water, food and aid, and feared death during IDF strikes. She thanked Trump, Witkoff and Boehler, saying they had “worked day and night to bring back my son.”

Alexander’s father, Adi, said, “We’ll never be able to express what that means to us, but we’ll never forget the tireless effort on Edan’s behalf; we are in their debt.” He added that Edan would soon return to his family and friends in Tenafly.

Edan himself, on Tuesday, published his first social media post since returning to Israel. “Home sweet home,” he wrote, alongside a selfie showing him in sunglasses and holding a beer bottle.

After his meeting with Alexander, Witkoff told the families of hostages held in Gaza that Hamas is “afraid of Donald Trump” and “should be.”

In brief footage from the lengthy meeting he and US hostage envoy Adam Boehler held with the families in Tel Aviv, aired by the Kan publicn broadcaster, Witkoff related that Alexander is “doing better than I would have thought. They actually treated him better. So for those who have relatives who are alive, I think that’s an important data point.”

He elaborated: “Edan told me that when the president was elected, he began to get treated well. And that’s a really interesting data point — that people evidently are being treated better there, because Hamas is afraid of Donald Trump. And the truth is, they should be.”

In a separate audio clip broadcast on Channel 12, Witkoff could be heard telling the families that if a diplomatic deal cannot be reached to solve the hostage crisis, it will be one of the worst failures of his life.

“The last thing I wanted to do was to call the Alexander family and give them notice of this thing,” Witkoff says, referring to Edan’s release, “because we thought six weeks ago we were getting him out, by the way, and he was going to be part of a larger release. And we were close. And, like that, it didn’t happen.”

Now, said Witkoff, “everything is moving in the direction of: create a deal to diplomatically solve it. And if we can’t diplomatically solve it, it’s going to be, in my view — I’m not going to speak for Adam, okay — but to me, it will be one of the worst failures that I can ever endure in my life.”

Channel 12 also reported that Alexander, on his release yesterday, immediately told Israeli officials and Witkoff that Matan Zangauker must be urgently returned. He was held with Zangauker for the past eight months, the report said.

Zangauker’s mother, Einav, has said they were held together in the same tunnel, with no other hostages.

Edan’s report on Matan was conveyed to Einav, the report said, leaving her in tears and more worried than ever for her son, who has medical issues.

Jessica Steinberg contributed to this report.