The family of the Israeli-American hostage begs Biden and Trump to bring hostages home

TEL AVIV – Over the past two weeks the political landscape has shifted ceasefire negotiations in Gaza have undergone a dramatic transformation.

The American elections, the firing the popular Israeli defense minister, Qatar’s decision to… suspend his mediationand the ongoing war in Lebanon all appear to have pushed the possibility of a Gaza ceasefire further away than it has in over a year of conflict.

Yet some families of the dozens of hostages who remain captive in Gaza desperately hope the changes will fuel momentum to bring their loved ones home — although the impact of Donald Trump’s return to the White House and a tough new defense minister in Israel remains unknown.

“I think there may be new hope,” said Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, 20, a soldier kidnapped from his base on the Gaza border during the war. Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

Alexander’s parents, Adi and Yael Alexander, who live in New Jersey, met with Trump and President Joe Biden in Washington this week and implored them to work together to bring all the hostages home in one deal.

“As a grandmother, I say: cooperate – Trump wants peace in this region. Biden has always said he wants to release the hostages, so work together and do something important for people’s lives,” Ben Baruch said.

She said neither leader has offered specific details or plans for releasing the hostages or resuming ceasefire negotiations in Gaza.

Talks have hit a wall in recent months, largely due to Hamas’ demands for guarantees that a full release of hostages will end Israel’s campaign in Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vows to keep fighting until Hamas is crushed and is no longer able to rearm itself.

“We are not involved in politics, not American and not Israeli, the families are above politics, we just want our loved ones to be home,” she said. “Edan was kidnapped because he was Jewish, not because he voted for a particular party.”

More than 250 people were kidnapped and 1,200 killed when Hamas militants crossed the border and launched a bloody attack on southern Israeli communities. According to local health officials, Israel’s retaliatory campaign has since killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and displaced about 90% of its 2.3 million people.

When militants attacked on the morning of October 7, Edan Alexander, then 19, was able to quickly send a message to his mother amid the heavy fighting around his base. He told her that despite having shrapnel lodged in his helmet from the explosions, he had managed to reach a protected area. After 7 a.m. his family lost contact.

Alexander was considered missing as the family desperately searched hospitals for him. After five days, friends recognized him in a video of Hamas militants capturing soldiers.

The family was happy: he was still alive, Ben Baruch said. “But we didn’t understand what we were getting into, what is still happening now.”

When a week-long ceasefire in November last year brought the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, some of the released hostages said they had seen Alexander in captivity. Ben Baruch said they told her that Alexander remained calm and encouraged them that everyone would be released soon.

Ben Baruch said she was disheartened when Netanyahu last week fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who she said had consistently reassured families that the hostages were at the top of his agenda.

“I felt he was a partner,” she said. Gallant was replaced by a Netanyahu loyalist who has pushed for a hard line against Hamas.

A mass protest movement urging the government to reach a hostage deal is showing signs of fatigue, and hostage families are struggling to keep their campaign in the headlines. A delegation from former hostages and their relatives met with the Pope Thursday and expressed hope that incoming and outgoing U.S. administrations would bring their loved ones home.

At Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, the headquarters of the protest movement, opinions were divided over the effect of Trump’s election on the hostages.

“I don’t think this is good for Israel or the hostages. I’m really scared for him,” said David Danino, a 45-year-old high-tech worker from Tel Aviv. He was at Hostages Square with his family, visiting from France, who wanted to pay their respects.

Danino noted that Israel had already achieved many of its war goals, including killing the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. “They paint a picture for us of what ‘victory’ is, but how can there be a victory without the hostages?” he asked.

Others thought Trump’s reputation could help the situation.

“When he decides to do something, he does it without blinking, and he can give ultimatums,” said Orly Vitman, a 54-year-old former special education teacher from the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon.

She comes to the square with her daughter every few months to light candles in honor of the hostages. Although she was against Gallant’s firing in the middle of the war, she was encouraged by Trump’s election.

“We will have the legitimacy and the ability to use the full force of what we know how to do,” she said.

Ben Baruch, a philanthropist and accomplished artist whose modernist sculptures adorn the Tel Aviv home where she has lived for 52 years, said she has put everything in her life aside to focus on the struggle to bring her grandson home. Her days are filled with meetings, interviews, rallies, protests and communal prayer sessions uniting different groups of Israelis from across the religious spectrum.

“It’s like people’s lives went back to their routine, but ours didn’t,” she said. ‘There’s nothing more to say. All words have been said. We have heard everything. We met everyone. But they are still there.”