DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas on Monday released an Israeli-American soldier who had been held hostage in Gaza for more than 19 months, offering a goodwill gesture toward the Trump administration that could lay the groundwork for a new ceasefire with Israel.

Edan Alexander21, was the first hostage released since Israel shattered an eight-week ceasefire with Hamas in March and unleashed fierce strikes on Gaza that have killed hundreds of Palestinians.

He was handed over to the Red Cross and then to Israeli forces before being flown by helicopter to a hospital in Tel Aviv. Israeli authorities released video and photos showing a pale but smiling Alexander in an emotional reunion with his mother and other family members.

Israel has promised to intensify its offensiveincluding by seizing Gaza and displacing much of the territory’s population again. Days before the ceasefire ended, Israel blocked all imports from entering the Palestinian enclave, deepening a humanitarian crisis and sparking warnings about the risk of famine if the blockade isn’t lifted. Israel says the steps are meant to pressure Hamas to accept a ceasefire agreement on Israel’s terms.

Wearing shirts emblazoned with his name, Alexander’s extended family gathered in Tel Aviv to watch the release. They chanted his name when the military said he was free, while in the city’s Hostage Square, hundreds of people broke out into cheers.

Alexander’s grandmother, Varda Ben Baruch, beamed. She said her grandson looked mostly all right in the first photo of him after nearly 600 days in captivity.

“He seemed like a man. He has really matured,” she said. Reports that Alexander cracked a joke on the phone while speaking to his mother for the first time did not surprise her. “He’s got such a sense of humor,” she said.

Alexander was 19 when he was taken from his military base in southern Israel during Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which set off the war in Gaza.

In his hometown of Tenafly, New Jersey, hundreds of supporters packed the streets, holding signs with his image and listening to speakers blasting Israeli music. As they watched the news of his release on a large screen, the crowd hugged and waved Israeli flags. Since he was taken hostage, supporters there gathered every Friday to march for the hostages’ release.

Israel says 58 hostages remain in captivity, with about 23 of them said to be alive. Many of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the 2023 attack were freed in ceasefire deals.

Trump calls expected release ‘hopefully’ a step toward ending war

Hamas announced its intention to release Alexander shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump was set to arrive Tuesday in the Middle East on the first official foreign trip of his second term.

Trump on Sunday called the planned release “a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators — Qatar and Egypt — to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones.”

“Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict. I look very much forward to that day of celebration!” Trump said on social media.

Trump, who is traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, is not scheduled to stop in Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday with the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, and discussed efforts to release the remaining hostages, his office said.

Netanyahu “directed that a negotiations team leave for Doha tomorrow,” the prime minister’s office said, adding that Netanyahu “made it clear that the negotiations would only take place under fire.”

Netanyahu said Alexander’s release “was achieved thanks to our military pressure and the diplomatic pressure applied by President Trump. This is a winning combination.”

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of hostages, welcomed the news that an Israeli delegation was headed to the Qatari capital for talks.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu, the ball is in your court,” the group said in a statement after Alexander was released. It urged the prime minister to announce that he was ready to negotiate a deal for the return of all remaining hostages and end the war.

“Don’t miss this historic opportunity facing the State of Israel. Prove to the Israeli public and President Trump that you are willing to take a regional initiative that transcends narrow political considerations,” the group said.

Israel says it still plans to escalate its offensive

On Monday, a statement from Netanyahu’s office said Israel did not make any concessions for Alexander’s release and had only agreed to create a “safe corridor” to allow Alexander to be returned.

It said Israel would carry on with plans to ramp up its offensive in Gaza. Israel says it won’t launch that plan until after Trump’s visit to the Middle East, to allow for a potential new ceasefire deal to emerge.

Early Tuesday, an Israeli strike hit the surgery department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Officials at the hospital said two people were killed and 10 wounded. They had initially reported three deaths but later amended their tally.

The Israeli military said it had precisely struck Hamas militants operating from within a command and control center at the hospital.

Netanyahu faces criticism for not freeing all hostages

Alexander’s release created a backlash against Netanyahu, whom critics accuse of having to rely on a foreign leader to help free the remaining hostages.

At the opening of his trial on corruption allegations, where he is giving testimony, a woman in the courtroom asked whether he was “ashamed that the president of the United States is saving his citizens, and he is leaving them to die there in captivity.”

Critics assert that Netanyahu’s insistence on keeping up the war in Gaza is politically motivated. Netanyahu says he aims to achieve Israel’s goals of freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas.

Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in the 2023 attack. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 52,800 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants or civilians.

Israel’s offensive has obliterated vast swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape and displaced 90% of the population, often multiple times.

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Magdy reported from Cairo and Goldenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

With just weeks remaining before Election Day 2016, Donald Trump faced off against Hillary Clinton for the third and final presidential debate of the cycle, and the Republican seemed eager to talk about the Clinton Foundation — or more specifically, it’s Middle Eastern donors.

“Saudi Arabia giving $25 million, Qatar, all of these countries,” Trump said. “You talk about women and women’s rights? So these are people that push gays off buildings. These are people that kill women and treat women horribly. And yet you take their money.”

After the election, the president continued down the same path, spending part of his first term condemning Qatar as a regressive state-sponsor of terrorism.

His attitudes apparently evolved over time, however, especially as the Trump Organization pursued business opportunities in the Middle East. Now, nearly a decade after Trump condemned Clinton for being the indirect beneficiary of Qatari generosity, the Republican is eager to accept a superluxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from his friends in Qatar.

A New York Times analysis highlighted the ways in which the president is raising red flags about corruption that eclipse some of the dramatic controversies from his first term.

The analysis added that Trump doesn’t fear legal consequences, since Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices effectively elevated the presidency above the law, and he doesn’t fear congressional accountability, because obedient GOP lawmakers hold majorities in both chambers of Congress.

It’s that latter point that’s of particular interest.

“The deeply chilling part of this bribe and national security betrayal from the president is just how blatant and erroneous what he’s doing is,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said as the controversy intensified. “He’s almost daring Republicans to stand up to him and defend our country.”

The New York Democrat added, “So, where are our Republican friends with this kind of egregious, grubby, awful self-enrichment?”

It’s hardly an unreasonable question. This apparent arrangement raises legal, ethical, political, mechanical, financial, and national security concerns. Are there any GOP lawmakers prepared to acknowledge reality?

To date, no Senate Republicans have publicly called on the White House to reject the “gift,” but some came close. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, for example, described the plan as “a mistake” and “not worth the appearance of impropriety.” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also sounded a note of skepticismwhile Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called Qatar’s offer “pretty strange.”

But other GOP partisans were quick to say what the president wanted them to say. Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, for example, compared the jet to France gifting the U.S. the Statue of Liberty — I don’t think he was kidding — while Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma suggested Congress would gladly approve the arrangement.

My personal favorite was Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who said“‘Gosh, let me give you a plane.’ I mean, that seems pretty nice, but they support Hamas, so I don’t know.”

As the president continues to struggle to come up with a coherent defense, Senate Democrats are planning to force a vote in the coming days on a resolution disapproving of the plan. Watch this space.

Steve legs

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”