The father of Edan Alexander, the Israeli-American soldier held hostage by Hamas and released this week after 584 days, has shared new details about his son’s time in captivity, describing harsh conditions, abuse and months of psychological and physical torture inside Gaza’s sprawling terror tunnel network.
Speaking to The New York Times, Adi Alexander said his 20-year-old son was handcuffed, beaten and interrogated shortly after being taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, during Hamas’ cross-border assault into Israel. At the time, Edan had served just 10 months in the IDF.
“There was nothing to interrogate him about,” Adi said. “They knew about the arrangement of the IDF much better than he did.”
At some point during Edan’s captivity, a tunnel collapsed around him, his father said, injuring Edan’s shoulder. He lost weight and grew frail after surviving for months on a sparse diet of flatbread, rice, brown beans and black coffee. Deprived of sunlight, Edan’s skin grew sallow and developed red welts. “His whole body has bedbug bites,” his father said. “His skin is in terrible condition.”
In the early days of captivity, Edan’s captors kept a bag over his head. Israeli airstrikes rattled the tunnels constantly. “It was like an earthquake,” Edan told his parents.
The conditions slowly improved. Edan was initially held in a crowded tunnel, but as other hostages were released or died, he had more space. After a ceasefire was declared in mid-January, his captors gave him meat for the first time. Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Edan was moved to another location with access to a television and shower, his father said.
Adi recalled the moment he learned his son would be released. On Sunday afternoon, while at home in Tenafly, New Jersey, he noticed eight missed calls from Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East. When they spoke, Witkoff asked him to stand next to his wife and put the call on speaker. “In about 10 minutes, Hamas would announce Edan’s release,” Witkoff told them.
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The family immediately turned on the television. “We went absolutely nuts,” Adi said.
Adi and his wife flew to Israel later that day. By Monday evening, they were reunited with Edan at the Re’im military base. From there, the family was flown by helicopter to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. “We have the whole floor!” Adi said. “The whole family is here. It’s amazing.”
Video released by the IDF showed Edan breaking down in tears as he hugged his mother, then laughing when his sister Mika and younger brother Roy walked in.
“He was this goofy, funny guy when he joined the army,” Adi said. “He’s still funny. I don’t think he’s a different person. He is simply tired.”