Media Report 2025.05.13

FPM Media Report Tuesday May 13 2025
American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander released by Hamas
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-13/american-israeli-hostage-edan-alexander-released-by-hamas/105284434

By Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran
In short:
American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander has been handed by Hamas to the International Red Cross in Gaza.
He is expected to be reunited with his family at the Israeli border later, after 580 days in captivity.
What’s next?
Hamas says it wants to immediately begin negotiations to reach a “comprehensive and sustainable ceasefire agreement” with Israel.
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American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander has been freed by Hamas and handed over to Israeli forces.
Vision broadcast on Israeli and Arab TV networks on Monday, local time, showed footage of a Red Cross convoy in Gaza, where officials took custody of the 21-year-old.
He was driven to the border by the Red Cross, before the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) took him into Israeli territory for medical checks and to be reunited with his family.
Mr Alexander, who was serving with the IDF when he was captured at a military base during Hamas’s October 7 attack, is the first hostage to be released since late February, and has spent more than 580 days in captivity.
The White House’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is expected to meet Mr Alexander at Re’im military base.
A spokesman for the IDF said: “The returning hostage is currently being accompanied by IDF special forces on his return to Israeli territory, where he will undergo an initial medical assessment and meet with his family.
Several people hold up signs with the faces of the hostages on them.

A crowd of people gathered in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
“The commanders and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces salute and embrace the returning hostage as he makes his way home to the State of Israel.”
Hamas agreed to release him as a gesture of goodwill, after negotiations with Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza stalled for months
“We affirm that serious and responsible negotiations achieve results in the release of prisoners,” Hamas said in a statement.
“However, continuing the aggression prolongs their suffering and may kill them.
“We affirm the movement’s readiness to immediately begin negotiations to reach a comprehensive and sustainable ceasefire agreement, including the withdrawal of the occupation army, the end of the siege, a prisoner exchange, and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.”
Mr Alexander’s mother arrived from the United States ahead of his release and was taken to the Re’im military base in southern Israel, near the Gaza border, to be reunited with him.
Yael Alexander travelled to Israel with the Trump administration’s hostage envoy, Adam Boehler.
Two men standing underneath a camouflaged military helicopter as it takes off from the ground
Edan Alexander’s mother and family members arrived from the US ahead of his release and were taken to Israel’s Re’im military base. (Reuters: Ammar Awad)
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke to US President Donald Trump and agreed to send an Israeli delegation would be dispatched to Doha for further negotiations on a ceasefire deal.
But his office insisted those discussions would happen “under fire” — in other words, the Israeli bombardment of Gaza would continue.
Families gather in Tel Aviv to call for more hostages to be released
Families of other hostages gathered in Hostage Square, in central Tel Aviv, ahead of Mr Alexander’s release.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is still in Gaza, was scathing of the Netanyahu Government’s handling of the situation.
“Netanyahu, I won’t let you kill my son,” she told the crowd.
“The people of Israel will not let you kill our loved ones.
“The people of Israel will not forgive you for these crimes of abandonment.”
A crowd of people with some holding yellow flags.
People have gathered to get the hostages back to their families. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
Last week’s announcement by the prime minister of an expansion of the IDF’s military offensive in Gaza has fuelled fear among hostage families.
“The fate of the Israeli hostages is linked with the fate the Gazans,” Udi Goren told the ABC.
His cousin, Tal Haimi, was killed on October 7, 2023 and his body taken into Gaza.
“It doesn’t matter who you root for, it doesn’t matter if you’re pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian,” Mr Goren said.
“If you care about people, about human lives, you need to root for bringing all the hostages back because that is the end of the war and the end to the suffering in Gaza and the end of suffering in Israel.
“I think both people deserve to see this happen.”
Israeli-Australian Erez Cohen was also in Hostage Square to show his support for the families.
His relative, Dror Or, was among those taken hostage on October 7 2023 by Hamas.
Israeli government plan to seize more of Gaza met with anger and protests
The body of Mr Or’s wife was found days later, and two of his children were freed from captivity in November 2023.
“The war just keeps going and it’s very easy to lose hope,” he said.
He was highly critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu, accusing him of putting politics ahead of securing the release of hostages.
“I don’t think they’ve done enough because they have a strong opposition within his government that refused any deal,” Mr Cohen said.
“The political situation is complicated for him, so he’s trying to resist it, but really it’s very hard to think politically when you have people dying there in those horrible conditions and we can still save them.”
Netanyahu minister demands ‘decisive attack’ on Gaza
One of the most vocal opponents of any ceasefire within Mr Netanyahu’s coalition cabinet is the controversial national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
“Mr. Prime Minister, we must not stop,” the far-right politician said at a press conference in the Israeli Knesset on Monday.
The controversial leaders of Israel’s far-right politics were boycotted by the US in the past. But they’ve been meeting with Donald Trump’s officials and dining at his resort.
“President Trump had already given you the backing, he had already told you that the gates of hell can open on Gaza.
“And we are procrastinating, procrastinating and missing out. We must stop missing out, we must stop procrastinating.
“We must launch a decisive attack, occupy all of the Gaza Strip and encourage voluntary migration of Gazans to countries around the world.”
Israeli President insists aid must bypass Hamas
Humanitarian agencies have repeatedly warned Gaza is on the brink of famine, after more than two months of Israel’s total aid blockade of the strip.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said his country was proposing the use of independent contractors to distribute supplies in Gaza, because Hamas could not be trusted.
“I’m not indifferent to [the Palestinians] pain, but I say the reality is that they are controlled out there in Gaza by Hamas, in every people’s homes, their missiles and weapons and ammunition, which is all aimed against our children,” he said in a press conference in Berlin.
“So we must change the reality and bring a new reality where there will be peace and coexistence.”
The German President Frank-Walter Steinmeir was standing alongside him, and demanded an immediate resumption of aid to Gaza.
Mark Dreyfus cabinet dumping ‘gratuitous’, says Ed Husic in new swipe at Labor
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-12/ed-husic-mark-dreyfus-labor-cabinet-reshuffle-factional-war/105256448

By Jason Whittaker
In short:
Ed Husic has come to the defence of Labor colleague Mark Dreyfus, after both were dumped from cabinet.
Mr Husic admitted on Q+A factional divisions had benefited him in the past, but recent events would “repel” voters.
The Liberal Party will meet on Tuesday in the wake of its devastating electoral loss to choose a new leader.
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Attorney-general Mark Dreyfus was denied “dignity” in his “gratuitous” sacking from Labor’s frontbench, a fellow victim of the factional carve-up says.
Ed Husic took another swipe at his own party on the ABC’s Q+A on Monday, after the Prime Minister announced a new-look ministry on Monday afternoon.
Mr Husic and Mr Dreyfus were both ousted from cabinet last week, elevating Victorian MPs Daniel Mulino and Sam Rae to balance the left and right factions in NSW.
Mr Husic, the former industry and science minister, said he felt “particularly strongly about what happened” to Mr Dreyfus.
“He should have been given dignity,” he said. “There should have been some class extended to Mark.
“I feel really bad for the way that he’s gone. I think a lot of other people feel that way.
“If people had … actually taken the time to have a yarn with him and talk it through, maybe (it would have been) a different outcome.
“It was just gratuitous, what happened with Mark, I thought.”
Mr Husic said the way the frontbench is decided — faction bosses pick names while the Prime Minister allocates portfolios — “can moderate ambition” and “provide an orderly path for renewal”, something he had benefited from in the past.
But how that power was wielded over the last week will “repel people from the party”.
“I just don’t think at the start of what was a great win, I just don’t think we should have had the distraction.”
Mr Husic said he met with the Prime Minister on Monday and told him he wants to continue to have a role in the government.
Husic: ‘I couldn’t say nothing’
On Sunday on the ABC’s Insiders program, Mr Husic called out Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles as a “factional assassin” and claimed his cabinet exit was in part the result of speaking out on the conflict in Gaza.
On Q+A, Mr Husic said if Labor was embracing diversity in the party room it also had to embrace the diverse views those members bring.
“You can’t celebrate diversity and then just expect it to say nothing,” he said.
“There’s no way in the world I could just sit and not say something.”
Greens Senator David Shoebridge rejected that their condemnation of Israel’s assault on Gaza was behind the loss of three lower house seats in the election.
He said, while there are diverse views in the community, the government should advocate for Palestinians.
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“I think we connected with millions of Australians who wanted our government to be doing everything they could to stop a genocide,” he said.
“If you take a political hit from some people … well, you take the political hit because you have to speak up.”
The panel was responding to one young Australian of Algerian descent, Maseenas Haddad, who questioned whether Islamic voices were being silenced in parliament in relation to the conflict in Gaza.
“Who can we look up to, who reflects our beliefs and our values in terms of policy?” the 17-year-old Sydney high school student asked.
Outgoing Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes said the war started with Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 in 2023 and any debate had to acknowledge detained hostages and global impacts on the Jewish community.
“The rise of antisemitism is outrageous and absolutely beyond acceptable behaviour,” she said.
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Dumped cabinet minister Ed Husic urges Labor to push for Palestinian statehood
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/dumped-cabinet-minister-ed-husic-urges-labor-to-push-for-palestinian-statehood/tr354p0fs

The outgoing industry minister said the Israeli government should be held accountable for its blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza and criticised the deputy prime minister as a “factional assassin”.
Ed Husic has become the first Labor MP to publicly call for the government to consider backing Palestinian statehood at an upcoming United Nations conference.
In an interview with SBS News after being dropped from the frontbench, Husic said the government should do “whatever we could do to back Palestinian statehood as quickly as possible”.
“We’ve said as a party and in our platform that that’s what we would push for. And I think whatever opportunity we can seize, we should,” he said.
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Husic said a UN conference on the “Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” scheduled for early June would be one such opportunity.
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UN resolution on Palestinian sovereignty: Australia’s vote and what it means
While Husic’s comments in support of Palestinian statehood are the strongest from any member of the government, Australia voted in mid-November in favour of a UN resolution
to recognise the “permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources”.
The vote represented a shift in position after abstaining on similar motions for two decades, and Labor ministers said it was an important step towards a two-state solution.
Labor figures usually express their support for Palestinian statehood only as part of a negotiated peace settlement with Israel, but Foreign Minister Penny Wong floated the idea of statehood on the path to a two-state solution during a speech during the first term of the Albanese government.
‘It’s not an accident’
Husic also said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government should be held accountable for its blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying it was causing “mass starvation”.
“Where we are experiencing mass starvation there, and where that could be addressed by the freer flow of humanitarian aid, why is that not happening?” he said.
“That is a conscious decision. It’s not an accident, and the use of starvation is recognised as a war crime under international humanitarian law, and so the Israeli government needs to be held accountable for that.”
Husic said he was “proud” of some of Labor’s previous moves such as the reinstatement of funding to Palestinian aid agency UNRWA and the sanctioning of extremist groups in Israel and the West Bank
However, he suggested more needed to be done to address “the starving of people in Gaza, the moves by the Israeli parliament to annex Gaza and the atrocious behaviour of the Netanyahu government in prosecuting a campaign that has seen tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians killed”.
Israel has faced growing international pressure to lift an aid blockade that it imposed in March
after the collapse of a United States-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months.
Israel has accused agencies, including the UN, of allowing large quantities of aid to fall into the hands of Hamas militants, who it accuses of seizing supplies intended for civilians and using them for their own forces.
‘Factional assassin’
On Sunday, Husic criticised deputy prime minister Richard Marles as a “factional assassin”
Husic has been removed by internal powerbrokers, a move understood to be signed off by Victorian right faction leader Marles.
Speaking for the first time since being axed from his industry minister job, Husic said Marles had chosen to “wield the factional club to reshape the ministry”.
“I think that when people look at a deputy prime minister, they expect to see a statesman, not a factional assassin,” he said.
Asked if Marles put his ambition to boost his numbers ahead of the good of the Labor Party and the government, Husic said “a lot of people would draw that conclusion”.
Husic was dumped to rebalance the ledger between the NSW and Victorian right, with the former over-represented in cabinet as spots are decided on a proportional basis between factions and states.
Mark Dreyfus has also lost his spot as attorney-general in the factional rejig. Dreyfus is set to be replaced by Victorian MP Sam Rae.
On Friday, former prime minister Paul Keating criticised “factional lightweights” for demoting Husic and Dreyfus, calling it an “appalling” decision.
He said dropping Husic signalled “contempt for the measured and centrist support provided by the broader Muslim community to the Labor Party at the general election”.
‘I just couldn’t stay silent’
During his appearance on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, Husic, who had been the cabinet’s sole Muslim member, also suggested speaking up for the people of Gaza may have contributed to his removal
When asked by host David Speers if he thought his stance had “cost” him, Husic responded: “I think it’s been a factor in there. Would I do things differently? I don’t think so.”
Husic said he had taken the view that “you need to speak up for the communities that you care about” and that he couldn’t “stay silent in the face of innocent civilians’ slaughters, tens of thousands starved out of Gaza”.
“So, I tried to find the way to be able to speak to the Cabinet table and speak elsewhere, to be able to make sure that their voices are heard,” he said.
“I think I fulfilled my role not just as a cabinet minister but as a caucus member. You should have the ability to speak up on the issues that you believe in. You should have the ability to question. It builds a stronger, not a weaker, party, to do so.”
Labor frontbenchers break ranks raising Gaza ‘collective punishment’ fears
Husic made headlines in late 2023 after saying Palestinians were being “collectively punished for Hamas’ barbarism” and that Israel’s response to the October 7 attacks may have broken international law
— comments more strident than those offered by other Labor figures at the time.
To SBS News, Husic said: “I just couldn’t stay silent.”
“Tens of thousands of people being killed, people turning to their elected representatives, not wanting lines of the day. They want an expression of values about what we think, what we’ll do, how we’ll respond,” he said.
“I think that’s important and you want to celebrate diversity as we’ve had in the cabinet, you can’t expect it to then sit in the corner and say nothing. People from backgrounds like mine will always feel morally compelled to speak.”
When asked by SBS News if he would be stronger in his advocacy from the backbench, Husic said: “It does provide for an opportunity to speak up much more openly.”
“Obviously, it’s a responsibility that you have to exercise those opportunities to speak up properly, maturely, and I will do that at the appropriate points,” he said.
He said he had no plans to move to the crossbench — as former Labor senator Fatima Payman did over the party’s stance on Palestinian issues — and hoped to return to the frontbench one day.
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Hamas releases US hostage in goodwill gesture towards Trump administration
https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/hamas-releases-american-hostage-in-goodwill-gesture-toward-trump-administration-20250513-p5lym6.html

By Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy and Tia Goldenberg
Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip: An Israeli-American soldier held hostage for more than 19 months in the Gaza Strip has been released by Hamas in a goodwill gesture towards the Trump administration that could lay the groundwork for a new ceasefire with Israel.
The Israeli military confirmed that Edan Alexander was turned over to the Red Cross and then to Israeli forces.
Supporters in Tel Aviv prepare for the release of Edan Alexander, an American-Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza.
Supporters in Tel Aviv prepare for the release of Edan Alexander, an American-Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza.Credit: Getty Images
Wearing shirts emblazoned with his name, Alexander’s extended family gathered in Tel Aviv to watch the release. They cheered and chanted his name when the military said he was free. His grandmother, Varda Ben Baruch, beamed. In Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, hundreds of people broke into cheers.
Alexander was 19 when he was taken from his military base in southern Israel during Hamas’ cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which set off the war in Gaza. His release was the first since Israel shattered an eight-week ceasefire with Hamas in March, unleashing fierce strikes on Gaza that have killed hundreds.
Israel has promised to intensify its offensive, including by seizing the territory and displacing much of its population again. Days before the ceasefire ended, Israel blocked all imports from entering the Palestinian enclave, deepening a humanitarian crisis and sparking warnings about the risk of famine if the blockade isn’t lifted. Israel says the steps are meant to pressure Hamas to accept a ceasefire agreement on Israel’s terms.
Israel says 58 hostages remain in captivity, with about 23 of them said to be alive. Many of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the 2023 attack were freed in ceasefire deals.
Red Cross vehicles carrying American-Israeli hostage and soldier Edan Alexander leave the Gaza Strip after he was handed over to the organisation.
Red Cross vehicles carrying American-Israeli hostage and soldier Edan Alexander leave the Gaza Strip after he was handed over to the organisation.Credit: AP
Television footage showed Alexander’s mother, Yael Alexander, arriving at the Reim military base in southern Israel, where her son was expected to be taken first.
Hamas announced its intention to release Alexander, shortly before US President Donald Trump is set to arrive in the Middle East on Tuesday (US time) on the first official foreign trip of his second term.
Trump had called the planned release “a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators – Qatar and Egypt – to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones.”
“Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict. I look very much forward to that day of celebration!” Trump said on social media.
Trump will travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, but is not scheduled to stop in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff and the US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Monday to discuss the release the remaining hostages, his office said.
“To this end, Prime Minister Netanyahu directed that a negotiations team leave for Doha tomorrow,” the prime minister’s office said, adding that Netanyahu had “made it clear that the negotiations would only take place under fire.”
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The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing relatives of hostages, welcomed the news that an Israeli delegation was headed to Doha for talks.
“While Edan Alexander’s release gives us hope, all 58 of our loved ones must come home. Time is running out. These negotiations must bring everyone back,” the group said in a statement. “Trump’s plan offers a real path to freeing all hostages immediately. Every passing day puts their lives at greater risk. We cannot wait any longer.”
A statement from Netanyahu’s office said Israel was not granting any concessions for Alexander’s release.
The statement said Israel did not commit to a ceasefire or the freeing of Palestinian prisoners as part of the release and that it had only agreed to create a “safe corridor” to allow for Alexander to be returned.
The statement said Israel would carry on with plans to ramp up its offensive in Gaza. Israel says it won’t launch that plan until after Trump’s visit to the Middle East, to allow for a potential new ceasefire deal to emerge.
Hamas-led militants killed 1200 people in the 2023 attack. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 52,800 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants or civilians.
Israel’s offensive has obliterated vast swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape and displaced 90 per cent of the population, often multiple times
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Age letters
https://edition.theage The.com.au/shortcode/THE965/edition/1c6f048f-7f1d-85f9-8ce3-6964a0cf0f11?page=2eb34042-c72e-3655-1825-db6ee79f54d0

Can protest groups in the city be stopped from interrupting public transport? They have
the right to stand somewhere and let everyone know their opinion but on Mother’s Day –
beautiful sunshine, blue skies and the city packed with people – they marched from the State
Library down past Flinders Street and stopped trams on every line. It doesn’t just stop
transport for people in the city, but as trams can’t get to the end of their line to come back in
again, it causes huge delays for people waiting on all the suburban tram stops too.
Carol
Evans, St Kilda
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Australia faces a dilemma amid the Israeli-US plan for humanitarian aid
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8963643/opinion-australia-faces-a-dilemma-with-humanitarian-aid/
By Robert Bowker
Amid preparations for a renewed assault intended to allow permanent Israeli occupation of Gaza, Israel and the United States are also about to establish a mechanism through which humanitarian aid will henceforth be distributed exclusively by US private military contractors protected by the Israeli military. Ruling out the involvement of UNRWA and the World Food Program in aid delivery, the aim, supposedly, is to prevent the delivery of food aid from being “controlled by Hamas”.
How we respond (or fail to respond) to these appalling prospects will speak volumes about the values we support abroad.
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The fundamental problem is that the Israeli plan embodies measures which challenge the principles upon which UN agencies and other mainstream NGOs have sought to adhere. Determined to uphold the principles of neutrality and independence, the UN Secretary-General and the coordinator for humanitarian relief, and non-governmental aid organisations working in Gaza, have unanimously rejected the Israeli-US plan. They insist the UN systems for equitable aid delivery are working, and they won’t cooperate with the Israeli scheme.
So Australia and other donors to UNRWA and WFP face a moral dilemma: if we reject the Israeli aid distribution scheme, in favour of long-established principles regarding the role of the United Nations bodies, how many lives of children must be lost to defend a principle?.
There is a political dilemma as well: who would be willing to challenge a stance, taken by both the Trump administration and Israel, and likely to be given strenuous backing by Israel’s supporters, for the sake of upholding the values of neutrality and impartiality integral to UN humanitarian operations, when the suffering among Palestinians continues to grow?
In framing our response, four considerations are important.
First, the urgent need for humanitarian relief is indisputable. The visual evidence of distress in Gaza is overwhelming. But children are starving primarily because of Israel’s refusal to allow UNRWA and WFP to deliver aid across the border with Egypt. A new ground offensive will be even more catastrophic for the civilian population.
Second, Hamas is beneath contempt for what it has wreaked upon the Palestinian people and their rights and legitimate aspirations, as well as its appalling attack on Israel. But any suggestion that there is a Palestinian alternative to Hamas that is more determined, ruthless, disciplined and capable than Hamas in Gaza is utterly delusional.
Military occupation of Gaza, even for an extended period, will not destroy it. Nor will Hamas be persuaded to surrender by increasing the suffering of the civilian population.
Third, assertions that UNRWA and WFP aid is controlled by Hamas, or even that aid delivered through the UN lends significant support to Hamas’s capacity to engage in armed conflict, are allegations driven by an Israeli political agenda whose real aim is to bring an end to UNRWA. Despite investigation, Australia and other key donors have not found such allegations to be substantiated by evidence.

Such allegations are also a gross insult to those Palestinians who have lost their lives working faithfully for UNRWA and other UN agencies to serve the refugee community, despite the pressures applied to them from all sides – from the ground and the air by Israel, and by elements within Gaza, including Hamas and criminal gangs.
Fourth and finally, added to those considerations is the need, for the sake of our wider foreign policy interests and domestic cohesion, to maintain consistency between the democratic values we uphold at home as intrinsic to our identity and those we seek to defend abroad.
For all those reasons, Australia must insist, publicly and privately, that the foreshadowed Israeli military assault does not take place.
Aid must be allowed to flow into Gaza, according to the arrangements that applied during the all too brief ceasefire which collapsed in March this year. UNRWA and WFP have to be allowed to resume their roles immediately.
Australia should state that if the Israeli plan for the distribution of aid goes ahead as foreshadowed, it must not serve as an excuse to exclude those UN operations that will provide immediate, effective, programmatic relief; and that enjoy the strong support of the international community and the endorsement of the International Court of Justice.
And if Israel maintains its present stance, in defiance of the international community and the International Court of Justice, and the values we claim to uphold, it should be left to face the consequences within the UN system that it is determined to challenge.
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Right call to dump Husic, wrong on Dreyfus
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/right-call-to-dump-husic-wrong-on-dreyfus/news-story/29f23e10b0ae02013703771bb0f8645f

Greg Sheridan
The Albanese government was right to drop Ed Husic from cabinet, as Husic’s extraordinary interview on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday confirms, but it has made a terrible mistake getting rid of the last King’s Counsel, Mark Dreyfus, as attorney-general. Husic, as a politician who benefited prodigiously from the Labor faction system, is open to charges of hypocrisy in whingeing about the system when he loses.
But that’s just par for the course. What was extraordinary was Husic’s complaint that his outspokenness on Gaza while in cabinet was, in his view, a factor in his demotion.
You shouldn’t appoint minorities in politics, Husic argued, and then expect them to sit quiet in a corner. Presumably Husic, in claiming minority status for himself, was referencing his being a Muslim. There were times when Husic as a cabinet member went far beyond government policy on Gaza, as for example calling for sanctions against Israel. That was controversial at the time. There was reportedly serious tension between Husic and Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Yet the implications of Husic’s defence of his own lack of discipline are shocking, if not frankly sinister.
In the Westminster system, cabinet ministers are bound by cabinet discipline. Cabinet ministers have the privilege of arguing, even voting, on government policy within cabinet, but once a policy is decided they have to abide by it publicly, though they can always argue within cabinet for it to be changed.
Thus, when Wong was a cabinet minister in Julia Gillard’s government, and the Gillard government at the time had a policy of opposing the legalisation of same-sex marriages, Wong had to abide by cabinet discipline, no matter how passionately she felt about the issue. The only other option would have been to resign from cabinet.
The implication in Husic’s bizarre argument is apparently that cabinet solidarity is OK for everyone else but should not apply to Muslims. This is an appalling position in principle and also deeply damaging to Australian Muslims because it implies that they should be held to a lower standard of political conduct than non-Muslims.
Similarly, Husic’s position also seems to imply that his views on Gaza were heavily influenced by his being Muslim.
I would never make those suggestions about any politician, linking any view they might hold to their religious or ethnic background. Husic, in his flailing tantrum, is himself bringing that slur against Australian Muslim politicians.
Husic’s defenders are also wildly over-estimating his very mixed, and at times eccentric, record as a minister. One of the most significant decisions he took was to cancel the previous government’s $1.2bn plan for Australia to build its own low Earth orbit satellites. We are one of the few countries of our size and wealth not to have our own satellites. The government cancelled similar military satellites. This is an essential piece of modern hi-tech architecture, with obvious military application, where the Albanese government just went missing. Having your own satellites is a kind of entry-level first step in a space industry, modern technology and national security.
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Former attorney-general Dreyfus, as far as I know, never breached cabinet discipline. His loss from cabinet is a minor national tragedy, not because he’s a super genius or anything but because he is the most substantial lawyer and the last King’s Counsel in parliament. It is immensely beneficial to a government, and to a parliament, to have one, and preferably more than one, serious legal mind in its ranks.
There are a million reasons for this. One is so that governments, not just the public service, can consider deeply the interaction of laws and policies. Senior KCs, and before that QCs, have frequently in our history stood up within government deliberations, and within cabinet itself, for basic common law rights that may be unintentionally, or indeed intentionally, infringed by specific legislation.
The law, academically, is one of the few intellectual disciplines left, in the emaciated tradition of the humanities in the West, that self-consciously, routinely and rigorously goes back to first principles to throw light on contemporary issues. It’s one of the few disciplines that consciously seeks the wisdom of the past in its deliberations.
The modern parliament is full of law degrees but almost completely empty of serious lawyers. A modern law degree is like an arts degree 50 years ago, it’s just a standard, generalist university ticket. A KC normally gets that title after long practice at the bar. They can be relied on to have seriously internalised the deepest principles, and much of the operational consequence, of the law.
Of course the academic study of the law has taken its own odd twists in recent years. But that again emphasises the value of an experienced KC who has operated in the real world.
Australian political history is full of KCs, formerly QCs, who have played central roles – Robert Menzies, Garfield Barwick, Percy Spender, HV Evatt, Gareth Evans, Daryl Williams, George Brandis and Dreyfus himself. Once, the very best KCs were keen to serve in parliament and national leadership as part of their civic contribution. Our culture has made that much less the case now.
Menzies apart, they seldom led governments. There’s something about being a KC that makes communication with ordinary people a bit difficult. Typically wordy, pedantic and a little pompous, almost none of the KCs (formerly QCs) could write a useable newspaper opinion piece. Indeed, Evans, brainy as he is, used to make Kevin Rudd look like Ernest Hemingway.
But none of that matters. It’s their deep legal expertise, their deep attachment to the principles of the common law, the sense in the whole community that they are people of accomplishment and substance, that made KCs so valuable to parliament and to government. Labor should have kept the last of the species in service.
Nothing could better illustrate the collapse of the standing of politics as a profession than that KCs now have not the slightest interest in joining its ranks.
We’re doing a lot to make politics less attractive to the best people. Liberal Keith Wolahan took a year off work to campaign for Menzies in 2022. He won narrowly, was a superb local member who made a national contribution, but suffered a heavy redistribution. He would have won on the old boundaries but lost narrowly on the new boundaries. You can’t really run for politics now without making a big personal financial commitment. That’s somewhat undemocratic.
Husic argued minority status should trump cabinet discipline. Dreyfus argued legislation should protect human rights and legal principles.
Getting the best into parliament is increasingly difficult.
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Israel on the cusp of finishing the war that Hamas started
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/israel-on-the-cusp-of-finishing-the-war-that-hamas-started/news-story/d0f460743cec238f64142143860d1fe4

Israel’s security cabinet last week approved a plan for a transition from the punitive operations and raids that have characterised Israel’s efforts in Gaza to date, to the taking and holding of territory.
The new plan is a tacit acknowledgment that Israel’s approach across the past 18 months has not come close to the desired objective of the destruction of Hamas rule in Gaza.
The intention of the renewed operation, if started, will be to secure destruction of the Islamist authority that a complacent Israel allowed to emerge in Gaza in 2007-23 and that launched the massacres of October 7, 2023.
In preparation of the new operation’s launch, tens of thousands of Israel Defence Forces reservists from the infantry and armoured corps are receiving renewed calls to active service.
Officials quoted in Israeli media have suggested the offensive will not begin before Friday, when US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East is set to conclude.
Trump is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates between Tuesday and Friday.
A key part of the new plan will be to relocate the Gazan population to an area below the corridor that Israeli forces have established between the Gazan cities of Rafah and Khan Younis. Israel envisages the establishment of an area between the Morag Corridor and Gaza’s border with Egypt, where the population will receive humanitarian aid.
The area will be secured by Israeli forces. This is intended to allow the IDF operational freedom of action in the remainder of Gaza.
Israel’s war effort in Gaza has been stymied by confused goals since its start.
A Palestinian girl watches as others clear debris and rubble at the Fatima Bint Asad school hit in overnight Israeli strikes in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday. Picture: AFP
A Palestinian girl watches as others clear debris and rubble at the Fatima Bint Asad school hit in overnight Israeli strikes in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday. Picture: AFP
The October 7 massacres triggered a much broader conflict in the region, in which at its height Israel faced attacks and action on seven fronts – Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran.
Israel scored considerable military achievements against Iran and its proxy militias in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. It succeeded also in preventing the outbreak of a major insurgency in the West Bank.
As a result, Iran’s proxies in Lebanon and Iraq have withdrawn from the fight.
Iran has been silent since Israeli retaliatory action on October 26, 2024. Syria’s Assad regime, a longstanding enemy of Israel, was toppled as an unexpected by-product of Israel’s successes against Lebanese Hezbollah.
The Houthis, as seen in the past week, are determined to continue the fight though their capacity to inflict harm on Israel is outweighed by Israel’s ability to respond.
Despite these successes, victory in the original arena that launched the war – Gaza – remains elusive. Israel has now taken control of about 30 per cent of the strip.
Outside these areas, the Hamas-led authority continues to rule. As has been apparent in recent weeks, it remains capable of acts of savage repression against Gaza residents who seek to protest against its rule.
A United Nations vehicle is parked next to the rubble of a destroyed building in Gaza City on Monday. Israel has taken control of about 30 per cent of the strip. Picture: AFP
A United Nations vehicle is parked next to the rubble of a destroyed building in Gaza City on Monday. Israel has taken control of about 30 per cent of the strip. Picture: AFP
The Hamas-run Gaza interior ministry announced its forces killed six civilians last week for “looting”. Hamas also retains significant military capacity, as evidenced by the deaths of IDF soldiers in action in Gaza in the past 10 days.
The simple if unpalatable truth is that Israel has failed to replicate its success in Gaza because of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The stated goals of Israel’s campaign in Gaza are the return of the hostages, the disarming of Hamas and the destruction of its rule in Gaza. The official version has it that hostages will be released on better terms as a result of military pressure on Hamas.
The problem with this approach is it isn’t really possible to try to destroy a political authority and seek to negotiate with it at the same time. In the end, reality requires you will have to prioritise one goal or the other. During the past 18 months Israel has prioritised the issue of hostage releases while maintaining a level of military pressure. This approach has brought about the release of most of the hostages (while also freeing a large number of Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails).
But it has failed to secure the demise of Hamas, which predictably has declined Israel’s invitation to dissolve itself by continuing to insist any agreement to end the fighting and secure the release of remaining hostages include an Israeli commitment to withdrawal and a long-term ceasefire. This would enable Hamas to proclaim victory. Israel rejects any such possibility.
So, does the announcement of Operation Gideon’s Chariots indicate Israel has now acknowledged this bitter reality and will prioritise the destruction of Hamas and move in the days ahead to finally achieve this? It is not yet clear.
Certain voices emanating from the security establishment have suggested the planned operation is intended as a tool of pressure to assist hostage negotiations. Israeli officials also claimed on Sunday the release of hostage Edan Alexander was the result of “military pressure”, according to reports in Israeli media.
The release of the dual US-Israeli citizen can more plausibly be accounted to a Qatar-influenced decision by Hamas to make a gesture to Trump during his visit to the region. But these quotes suggest a clear Israeli decision to prioritise the destruction of Hamas may not, in fact, have been reached. Absent this, Israel is unlikely to escape the inconclusive holding pattern of recent months.
The contest initiated by Hamas on October 7, 2023, places not only armies but societies in conflict with each other.
Hamas intends to prove that by striking at Israel’s underbelly – its concern for every one of its citizens – Israel’s enemies can paralyse the Jewish state and prevent a decisive response to aggression.
Should the Palestinian Islamist movement that has held sway in Gaza since 2007 emerge from the past 18 months of war intact, if battered, it will have proved this point. This will be understood by all of Israel’s enemies.
Jonathan Spyer is a Jerusalem-based Middle East analyst.
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Hamas releases last living American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/hamas-releases-last-living-americanisraeli-hostage-edan-alexander/news-story/7226d4b7d790b1e4e2e66d6059be8339

Anat Peled and Summer Sai
Hamas released the last remaining living American hostage in Gaza on Monday, marking a diplomatic win for the Trump administration that has brought mixed reactions in Israel.
Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old American-Israeli soldier who was captured while serving near the border with Gaza, was released as part of a deal between the US and Hamas, according to officials involved in his release. Israel had said that it would allow for a safe corridor for Alexander’s exit from the enclave but that it wouldn’t be giving Hamas anything for his freedom.
Hamas still holds the bodies of four slain American-Israelis taken during its assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The US is also working on their release.
Hamas freed Alexander without a release ceremony as it has done with previous hostages, parading them on stages in front of crowds, which angered Israel.
Negotiations are also on track between Hamas and Israel for a pause in fighting that would see the release of additional hostages and allow humanitarian aid to resume entering Gaza after a two-month blockade, according to Arab officials. Israel will send a team to Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday as part of efforts to clinch a deal, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
The negotiations to stop the fighting come as a global hunger watchdog said on Monday that Gaza isn’t expected to cross the threshold into famine in the months ahead, though it remains at critical risk. A group of experts called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said nearly half a million people are facing starvation in Gaza, a major deterioration since its last assessment late last year.
President Trump had given priority to Alexander’s release. It marks a clear diplomatic victory for the president as he is set to travel to the Middle East this week on his first trip since being re-elected. He isn’t set to stop in Israel.
“I’m very happy to announce that Edan Alexander, an American citizen who until recently most thought was no longer living, thought was dead, is going to be released,” Trump said Monday.
Trump had previously believed that most of the hostages in Gaza were dead, according to Alexander’s father, who told him in a meeting in October 2024 that most were actually believed to be alive, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza voiced their anger at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday (May…
In Israel, the reaction to Alexander’s release has been complex. While Israelis are happy to see a hostage be freed, many are disappointed that an American’s release was given priority over the rest of the captives. Former hostages and families of hostages remaining in Gaza have criticised deals that bring only a few captives home at a time in exchange for temporary ceasefires. Instead, they have advocated for a deal that would free all the remaining hostages and bodies held by Hamas in exchange for an end to the war.
The US deal also brought domestic complications for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Many Israelis felt it showed that Netanyahu wasn’t doing enough to free hostages. On the right, there were fears that Netanyahu would cave to US pressure to ink a broader deal that would end the war before Israel has decisively defeated Hamas.
The Israeli prime minister’s office said Monday that Alexander’s release was achieved thanks to Israel’s military pressure with the backing of Trump and that Israel didn’t commit to releasing militants or to providing a ceasefire in return.
Relatives of Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander arrive ahead of his scheduled release from Hamas captivity in Gaza. Picture: AP.
Relatives of Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander arrive ahead of his scheduled release from Hamas captivity in Gaza. Picture: AP.
Alexander was expected to be met on Monday by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Alexander’s mother, who travelled to Israel with Special Envoy for Hostage Response Adam Boehler.
Alexander’s release had been a priority for the Trump administration, which has placed hostage diplomacy around the world at the forefront of its foreign policy, freeing captive Americans from places such as Russia and Afghanistan. Senior American officials have travelled to Doha in recent months to secure Alexander’s release, according to Arab officials.
Israel is known to do everything in its power to bring hostages and captured soldiers home. The country has historically been willing to pay high prices for slain captive soldiers and is known for daring hostage-rescue missions such as the Entebbe raid in 1976, during which Netanyahu’s brother died.
Going against this ethos is painful for many in Israel.
“My Nimrod doesn’t have a foreign citizenship. My Nimrod is 100 per cent Israeli. Nimrod also deserves to come home,” said Viki Cohen, mother of captive soldier Nimrod Cohen, 20, who remains in Gaza and is believed to be alive.
While Witkoff tells families in private meetings that he is committed to bringing home all the hostages, many worry that their relatives could be left behind since they will be a lower priority once Alexander and the four slain Americans are retrieved from Gaza.
Polls in Israel show that a large majority of the public supports an end to the war in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages in the enclave, which includes more than 20 who Israel believe could be alive and over 30 dead bodies. Hostage families take to the streets every week to pressure the government to end the war and release their relatives, and criticise Netanyahu for refusing to end the fighting.
Alexander’s release “shows that a determined leader is committed to his citizens,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group that represents the captives, said referring to Trump. “Prime Minister, what about your commitment to the remaining 58 hostages,” the forum asked of Netanyahu.
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‘NO DEAL’ ON CEASEFIRE DESPITE HOSTAGE RELEASE
https://todayspaper.theaustralian.com.au/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=0a7a7f3c-95eb-4b89-9d09-4fc813f66e08&share=true

Anat Peled – Summer Said
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the release of a US-Israeli hostage announced by Hamas would not lead to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip or the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Negotiations for a possible deal to secure the release of all hostages in Gaza would continue “under fire, during preparations for an intensification of the fighting”, Mr Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office.
Hamas on Sunday said it would release Edan Alexander, a US-Israeli soldier held in Gaza, as the group revealed it was engaged in direct talks with the US towards a ceasefire in the war-battered territory. No date was given, but the family of 21-year-old Alexander said they had been informed that he might be released “in the coming days”.
However, a source familiar with efforts to secure Alexander’s release said the hostage would likely be freed from Gazan captivity sometime on Monday afternoon or evening (local time).
Another source said the US did not brief Israel on the effort to release Alexander until after the deal with Hamas was reached.
Israel was generally aware that efforts were ongoing, but only knew about them from its own intelligence operations.
“Israel has not committed to a ceasefire of any kind or the release of terrorists but only to a safe corridor that will allow for the release of Edan,” Mr Netanyahu said.
The promise of Alexander’s release had been achieved through “military pressure” in the Gaza Strip, he added. “We are in the midst of critical days in which Hamas has been presented with a deal that would enable the release of our hostages,” he said.
The family of hostage Alon Ohel has criticised the move to secure Alexander while leaving the rest of the hostages behind, noting that their son was continuing to suffer in captivity.
“The deal leaves Alon behind while he is injured and in pain,” the family said in a statement.
“We are in a nightmare and frightened.”
The comments reflect a sense of unease among some hostage families that the arrangement securing Alexander’s release, which the US says is part of an effort to end the war and free all hostages, differentiates between those in Gaza based on what passports they hold.
According to the family, relying on information from freed hostages, Ohel has been kept bound in chains and received no medical attention for shrapnel in his eye and shoulder from wounds suffered on October 7, 2023.
The statement offers well-wishes to the family of Alexander on their son’s impending freedom and urges Israel’s government to reach a deal securing the release of the rest of the hostages.
“Alon and the rest of the injured hostages are being left behind in the tunnels with no medical attention or help,” the family said. “There is no date for the end of our nightmare.”
Earlier, two Hamas officials told AFP that talks were ongoing in the Qatari capital of Doha with the US and reported “progress” had been made. The announcement of the first hostage release since Israel shattered a ceasefire in March comes with US President Donald Trump due to visit the Middle East this week.
It highlighted the willingness of Israel’s closest ally to inject momentum into ceasefire talks for the 19-month war as desperation grows among hostages’ families and Gaza’s two million people under the new Israeli blockade.
Israeli strikes, meanwhile, continued, with Gaza’s civil defence agency reporting that at least 10 people were killed in an overnight airstrike on a school housing displaced people.
“At least 10 (dead), including several women and children, as well as dozens of wounded, were transported following an Israeli airstrike on the Fatima Bint Asad school, which is home to more than 2000 displaced people in the city of Jabalia,” Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.
Gaza militants hold 58 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the war, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
With Agencies
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SECRETS SPILL AS ISRAEL’S SPY AGENCY IS ENGULFED BY NETANYAHU ROW WITH ITS BOSS
https://todayspaper.theaustralian.com.au/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=e9caf848-5ab1-4f4a-b698-fcbbf7882f58&share=true
Gabrielle Weiniger
In a rare unguarded moment, the Hamas bombmaker put the burner phone against his ear and answered his father’s call. Israeli wire-tappers listening in to the call in Gaza recognised Yahya Ayyash’s voice and pressed a button. Ayyash’s hand and part of his head were blown off by the explosives hidden inside the device.
Assassinations such as this in 1996 have been the most audacious and deadly hallmarks of the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, which was trusted for decades to protect the nation.
The failure to detect and prevent Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023 dented the Shin Bet’s reputation and led to a public row between its director, Ronen Bar, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The acrimony has blown open apparent secrets between the two and led to a battle over the integrity of the agency, which was once so secretive it was forbidden to utter its name.
“As director of the Shin Bet, you are in a very, very sensitive post and you are very, very close – intimately close – to the prime minister,” said Yaakov Peri, the director between 1988 and 1994.
In effect, the Shin Bet acts under the direct command of the prime minister, in parallel to but not dependent on Israel’s democratic institutions, he explained.
The Shin Bet was in the midst of investigating large sums of money from Qatar landing in the bank accounts of Mr Netanyahu’s close aides – even during the war with Hamas in Gaza – raising the prospect of foreign penetration deep inside the highest corridors of political power.
Israel’s high court froze Mr Bar’s sacking, pending a ruling.
“Relations are so intimate and so close, that I couldn’t understand what happened between Netanyahu and Ronen Bar and the idea that Netanyahu asked Bar to do things forbidden by the code,” Mr Peri said of Mr Bar’s accusations against Mr Netanyahu, including that the Prime Minister tried to solicit powerful espionage and intelligence tools available only to the Shin Bet to be used against anti-government protesters. Mr Bar said Mr Netanyahu expected the Shin Bet to obey him and not the courts should such a conflict arise, and tried to push Mr Bar to help delay the veteran leader’s rolling criminal trial on corruption charges.
The broken code escalated into a Supreme Court battle between the pair, who both issued contradictory signed affidavits, effectively asking the court to pick a side.
“I know the guy (Bar). I know his integrity and I know that he’s not telling all kinds of stories. From the other side, I also know Mr Netanyahu. And Netanyahu is really able to set a scene to show that Ronen Bar is not telling the truth – and that is not true,” Mr Peri said.
Mr Peri believes that Mr Bar’s resignation last month, which takes effect on June 15, may relieve the court from having to adjudicate. It has been reported that Mr Netanyahu has frozen Mr Bar out of security meetings after appointing his replacement – and then reneging on that appointment.
The Times
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Letter the Australian
https://todayspaper.theaustralian.com.au/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=37869e3e-b351-4f2b-b250-7eef5c0c1639&share=true

Putting aside the factional bloodbath in the ALP, there seems little doubt that axing Ed Husic is a major blunder by the party. Husic has proved to be a hardworking MP whose voice needs to be heard. I hold quite the opposite views on the Gaza dilemma and side with Israel in its war against Hamas, although I suspect we would largely agree on the West Bank issue. His active opposition to Israel’s Gaza military intervention seems to have caused problems with the party. However, contrary views are expected in a democracy and need to be aired. Husic has the experience to be a productive minister but he seems to be a voice in the wilderness in his calling for increased productivity.

Mal Price, Sunrise Beach, Qld
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Hamas frees last living US citizen held in Gaza in what Trump calls a ‘good faith step’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/12/hamas-frees-last-us-citizen-held-in-gaza-in-what-trump-calls-a-good-faith-step

American soldier Edan Alexander meets family at Israel border after masked fighters hand him over to Red Cross
Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum in Jerusalem
Tue 13 May 2025 05.27 AEST
Hamas has freed the last living US citizen it held in Gaza, soldier Edan Alexander, in a unilateral move Donald Trump described as a “good faith step” towards ending the war and bringing home all remaining hostages.
The release of 20-year-old Alexander, a dual national serving in the Israel Defense Forces who spent 584 days in captivity after he was seized from his base on 7 October 2023, was agreed with little Israeli involvement beyond practical coordination on the ground.
There was no ceasefire in Gaza for his return, although Israel paused fighting from midday for the handover, which came as UN-backed experts warned that half a million Palestinians face starvation in Gaza due to Israel’s weeks-long siege.
He was dressed in civilian clothes when masked fighters handed him to a Red Cross official. He was driven to the border with Israel, where family who had flown over from the United States were waiting to meet him after initial check-ups.
He told Israeli soldiers after his release that he had been held handcuffed with other hostages, in a cage inside a tunnel, Israel’s Kan television reported.
Hamas said in a statement they had freed Alexander “following contacts with the US administration, to achieve a ceasefire, open crossings, and bring aid and relief to our people in Gaza”.
“We urge President Trump’s administration to continue its efforts to end this brutal war,” the statement added.
Trump celebrated the release with a post on Truth Social on Monday afternoon. “Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage, is being released. Congratulations to his wonderful parents, family, and friends!”
In a previous post he described the release as “a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators – Qatar and Egypt – to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones”.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, thanked Trump for his role in Edan’s release but also claimed credit was due to Israeli forces and his own government’s military strategy.
“This was achieved thanks to our military pressure and the diplomatic pressure applied by President Trump. This is a winning combination,” he said in a statement
The Israeli leader has insisted throughout the war that military pressure is the best way to ensure that the hostages return home, even as Trump stepped up calls for a deal to end the conflict.
Alexander’s release comes on the eve of Trump’s first trip to the region since his re-election, with Israel conspicuously missing from his itinerary, and after a series of blunt public snubs to the
Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, denied on Monday that the relationship with Israel’s most important ally was strained. “Forget rumours. We’re all on the same page,” he said, after a meeting with Netanyahu and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s regional envoy which he described as “excellent”.
Qatar and Egypt, who mediated Alexander’s release, described it as an encouraging step towards new truce talks. After the soldier returned to Israel, Netanyahu also said he had ordered negotiators to Doha to discuss a possible deal for Gaza, ahead of a planned new Israeli offensive there.
For now, Israel’s leader appears trapped between Trump’s desire for a deal and pressure from his coalition partners to continue the war.
His government relies on the backing of far-right parties who want Israel to keep fighting, including finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who earlier this month vowed that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed” and its Palestinian population will “leave in great numbers”.
However Trump, who previously delighted Netanyahu’s far right allies by backing plans to force Palestinians to leave Gaza, has not publicly criticised Netanyahu.
The Israeli leader may be hoping that strong support for Israel from the Republican base and other pressing demand’s on Trump’s attention, from the war in Ukraine to tariff talks with China, will divert the US leader’s attention away from Gaza even if fighting continues.
Crowds gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square to watch footage of Alexander’s release and call for the return of other hostages. Trump said after Alexander’s release that only 20 of those were still alive, a number the Israeli government has not confirmed.
Relatives and supporters called for the government to push for a breakthrough to bring back 58 others still in Gaza.
Others were blunter. Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker who for a time was held with Alexander, said the prime minister was an “angel of death” and called for mass protests to force him from office.
“Instead of ending the war and bringing everyone back, Netanyahu is preparing to expand the war this week. To execute the kidnapped who remain in captivity and to make the dead disappear,” she said. “Instead of saving lives and bringing everyone back, he chose to turn our loved ones into corpses.”
Freed US Hamas hostage reunites with family, thanks Trump
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/middle-east/star-couples-daughter-arrested-at-antiisrael-protest/news-story/a4b98e0869fcfe550531bf8b241c8438

The last surviving US-Israeli hostage being held in Gaza has been freed after 584 days, thanking US President Donald Trump for his release and holding an emotional reunion with his family.
Joe Marino, Georgina Worrell and Chris Nessi
Israel has released emotional footage showing freed US hostage Edan Alexander’s mother speaking to her 21-year-old son on the phone just after he was released by Hamas in Gaza.
“You are strong. You are safe. You are home. We’ll see each other soon. I love you,” Yael Alexander said to her son, an Israel Defence Forces staff sergeant who was held captive by Hamas for more than 19 months.
Loved ones could be heard squealing with jubilation, exclaiming “Oh my God!” as the overjoyed mother was handed the mobile phone with Edan on the line.
Newly-released Israeli-US hostage Edan Alexender reuniting with a member of his family at an undisclosed location in Israel. Picture: AFP
“You’re out, my dear. That’s it. I’m here waiting for you. Everything’s OK, you’re OK. You’re safe and you’re home, we’re going to meet soon. I love you my dear,” she said, according to a translation provided by Israel Defence Forces and shared on social media.
Photos showed Edan seated on a military helicopter holding aloft a small dry erase board with “Thank you President Trump” written in green ink.
The US President celebrated the news of Edan’s release in a post on Truth Social.
“I am happy to announce that Edan Alexander, an American citizen who has been held hostage since October 2023, is coming home to his family,” he wrote.
“I a grateful to all those involved in making this monumental news happen,” he said, touting the ongoing negotiations to bring an end to the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“This was a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators — Qatar and Egypt — to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones,” he said.
Yael had received no indication her son was still alive, the last time she saw his face was during a video released by Hamas last month.
She made a plea for his safe return on US TV.
“We saw our son screaming and yelling and saying very tough things,” she said. “Since that clip, I’m not sleeping. I’m worried sick. And I just hope that he knows that everyone loves him, everyone cares about him and we are doing everything that we can to bring him home.”
Edan, an Israeli-American citizen from New Jersey, was turned over to the Red Cross and then to Israeli forces before crossing back into the Jewish state Monday night, according to the IDF.
He was the last living American held captive by Hamas since they seized 255 hostages during the October 7, 2023, attack.
Although the state of his health wasn’t immediately known, the Kan public broadcaster reported he had been kept handcuffed in a cage and severely tortured during his 584 day imprisonment.
He will be taken to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv for medical treatment.
Earlier, Hamas announced that its armed wing had released a US-Israeli hostage, with a source close to the Islamist movement adding that Edan Alexander was handed over to the Red Cross in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.
“The (Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades have just released the Zionist soldier and American citizen Edan Alexander, following contacts with the US administration, as part of the efforts undertaken by mediators to achieve a ceasefire,” Hamas said in a statement.
Among those waiting anxiously Monday for the release of Edan Alexander, the US-Israeli hostage held by Hamas since October 2023, was his grandmother who said she couldn’t wait to hug him.
Israelis react after the release of Edan Alexander, an Israeli-US captive in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on May 12, 2025. Picture: AFP
Israelis react after the release of Edan Alexander, an Israeli-US captive in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on May 12, 2025. Picture: AFP
“I feel very excited, happy. The process is still not over, it has only just begun, and we are really waiting to hug Edan and feel that he is truly with us,” Varda Ben Baruch said from her Tel Aviv home.
Sporting a baseball cap with the slogan “Now” and wearing a T-shirt highlighting the number of days her grandson has been held captive, Ben Baruch has become a powerful voice advocating for the release of all those captured during Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel.
Since the announcement that her grandson was set to be released, Ben Baruch has been talking to local and foreign media, while also preparing Alexander’s favourite foods for when he is reunited with his family.
Israeli television showed Ben Baruch holding a tray of pastries she said were sent to the army base where he will soon meet his parents.
Israeli media also reported that the family was planning to fly Alexander to Qatar to meet US President Donald Trump, who will be there this week on a regional visit.
“We don’t know anything at the moment. First we’ll see what Edan’s condition is, and based on that it will be decided whether he is able to travel to President Trump and thank him in person,” Ben Baruch told AFP.
She said the family was deeply grateful to the US president for securing the release of Alexander, a native of New Jersey who moved to Israel and joined the military straight after high school.
“I want to thank President Trump, (US special envoy) Mr (Steve) Witkoff, and (US hostage envoy) Adam Boehler for everything they did for Edan’s release and, God willing, they will continue to work for all the hostages who are still there in Gaza,” Ben Baruch said.
“We want to see all of them, every last one, return to the Land of Israel.” Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hamas also holds the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in the 2014 war.