(Image credit: KARIM JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images)
A senior Hamas official told Drop Site that the group received a direct commitment from Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, that two days after the release of U.S. citizen and Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, the Trump administration would compel Israel to lift the Gaza blockade and allow humanitarian aid to enter the territory. Witkoff, according to the official, also promised that Trump would make a public call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for negotiations aimed at achieving a “permanent ceasefire.”
“It was a deal,” said Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau who has previously engaged in direct talks with U.S. officials. He said the pledge was made by “Witkoff, himself.” In an interview with Drop Site, Naim said the agreement was: “If we release [Alexander], Trump will speak out thanking Hamas for its gesture, obliging Israel on the second day to open the borders and allow aid to come into Gaza, and [Trump would] call for an immediate ceasefire and to go for negotiations to end the war.”
“He did nothing of this,” Naim added. “They didn't violate the deal. They threw it in the trash.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The release of Alexander, who was taken by Palestinian fighters on October 7, 2023 from the Israeli military base where he was stationed, was a significant event: He was the first male soldier freed by Hamas since the war began 19 months ago. Hamas said it freed him as a “gesture of goodwill” toward Trump and because it believed it had received a commitment Alexander’s release would result in the immediate delivery of food, medicine, and fuel into Gaza.
