Freed American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander was reportedly tortured by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas during nearly 600 days in captivity, and was kept handcuffed in a cage along with other hostages.
Alexander was freed by Hamas on Monday, supposedly as a gesture of “goodwill” by the terrorist group, ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit this week to several Arab countries in the region.
Trump welcomed the release, as did Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who was present in Israel to greed Alexander. Witkoff is working on a broader regional peace deal involving Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The latter has been Hamas’s source of funds and protection in exile at various times over the last several decades.
However, like many Israeli hostages, particularly male hostages, Alexander was malnourished until shortly before his release. And he appears to have been treated worse than the rest, despite his U.S. citizenship, because he was a soldier in the elite Golani brigade of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) when captures on October 7, 2023.
The Times of Israel, citing Israel’s Kan broadcaster, reported: “Released hostage Edan Alexander suffered severe torture and was held handcuffed in a cage for an extended period of time, according to his initial testimony … [he] was reportedly interrogated for weeks and held in a Hamas tunnel.”
Trump has been harshly critical of Hamas in the past for the malnutrition and torture of Israeli hostages.
The Red Cross, which delivered Alexander to Israel, failed to visit him in captivity even a single time.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
