[News] Hamas Says Trump Envoy Broke Deal After Release of U.S. Soldier from Gaza

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Hamas Says Trump Envoy Broke Deal After Release of U.S. Soldier from Gaza
Editing Team
May 17, 2025
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[image: low_quality-heEn29ZOsM.jpg]

Gaza (Quds News Network)- A senior Hamas official says Donald Trump’s
special envoy, Steve Witkoff, made a direct deal with the resistance
movement: release U.S. soldier Edan Alexander, and in return, the Trump
administration would pressure Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza, allow
aid in, and call for a ceasefire. But the U.S. broke its word.

“It was a deal,” said Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, in
an interview with Drop Site
<https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/witkoff-hamas-trump-deal-edan-alexander-lift-blockade-israel?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web>.
He said the promise came from Witkoff himself. “They didn’t violate the
deal. They threw it in the trash.”

Alexander, a dual U.S.-Israeli settler, was captured by Palestinian
resistance fighters from an Israeli tank on October 7, 2023. He used to
serve in the Israeli military. His release this week marked the first time
Hamas freed a male Israeli soldier since the genocide began. Hamas said the
move was a gesture of goodwill toward Trump and based on promises of
immediate humanitarian relief for Gaza, which has been facing a starvation
campaign by Israel for over two months.

But instead of aid, Israel intensified its attacks. One day after
Alexander’s release, Israeli forces bombed the European Hospital in Khan
Younis, killing 28 people. Israel claimed that the strike targeted Mohammed
Sinwar, Hamas’s current armed wing commander. Neither Israel nor Hamas has
confirmed his death.

Trump, while touring Gulf nations, acknowledged the famine in Gaza. “A lot
of people are starving. A lot of people. There’s a lot of bad things going
on,” he said during a visit to the UAE. But Naim dismissed the comment. “We
are looking for actions,” he said. “The humanitarian disaster has to end
immediately.”

Trump had proposed turning Gaza into a “freedom zone” and a U.S.-controlled
“Middle East Riviera.” In February, he stood with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and floated the idea of seizing the territory.

Meanwhile, U.S. and Israeli officials have pushed an aid plan that bypasses
Hamas and restricts access based on security vetting. The Gaza Humanitarian
Foundation, backed by Trump, is expected to start operating by the end of
May. Aid would be distributed in southern Gaza, far from displaced
communities in the north.

International aid agencies and the UN have condemned the plan. They warn it
weaponizes food and ignores the need for a ceasefire. Israeli officials
have confirmed that troops would “secure the area”, despite not directly
handing out aid.

Hamas says only a full ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal will justify
releasing more Israeli soldier prisoners. Naim stated that Israel uses
temporary truces to secure prisoner releases and then returning to war and
blockade. “We will be in the same position as today,” he said. “They want
to take the prisoners and then go back to bombing and starvation.”

This week, Israeli airstrikes killed over 90 Palestinians and wounded 200
more. Northern Gaza saw mass evacuation orders. Paramedics reported intense
air raids on residential areas. Bodies were left on hospital floors, and
ambulance crews were targeted.

Hamas insists that talks have stalled. “Zero progress,” said Naim. “They
went back to the old Israeli plan, as if the release of Alexander never
happened.”

Israeli media reported that Witkoff “gave up” during recent talks in Doha
and told mediators the U.S. would no longer pressure Israel to end the
genocide. The “Witkoff draft” proposal, leaked in April, removed key terms
from a January agreement that had outlined a permanent ceasefire and full
Israeli withdrawal.

Instead, the new proposal calls for partial Israeli pullbacks, continued
military presence inside Gaza, and complete disarmament of Hamas — all
non-starters for the group.

Naim said the Trump administration keeps changing positions. “It’s like the
stock market,” he said. “Morning, noon, and night — different moods.”

Unless Washington forces Israel’s hand, Naim warned, the genocide will
continue. “As long as Israel behaves like a rogue state with no
consequences,” he said, “these negotiations are pointless.”
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