Hundreds of friends and residents gather in Tenafly, New Jersey, to watch the release of Edan Alexander on May 12. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

By Jacob Kornbluh May 12, 2025

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy expressed immense relief over the release of Edan Alexander, a New Jersey native and IDF soldier who was taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 and held captive for 584 days. Alexander, 21, was the last living American hostage in Gaza and was freed by his captors as a gesture toward President Donald Trump, who is set to visit the region this week.

“New Jersey tough, you betcha,” Murphy said in a phone interview, after seeing still images — released by Al Jazeera — of Alexander in the hands of Red Cross representatives wearing a black Adidas polo shirt. “What courage, what determination, what strength he must have shown all these days. I feel incredibly relieved.”

Murphy, a Catholic, who recently returned from a visit to the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps and is currently attending a conference in Washington, said he expects to speak with Alexander by phone and, hopefully, meet him in person at the appropriate time.

“On behalf of your 9.5 million-member New Jersey family, welcome home,” Murphy said would be his first words to Alexander. “We love you. God bless you.” Murphy praised Alexander’s parents, Adi and Yael, for their relentless efforts and commended both the Biden and Trump administrations, “who each worked diligently and relentlessly on this.”

Alexander, who was born to Israeli parents living in Tenafly, New Jersey, was serving as a lone soldier on the Gaza border when he was taken captive by Hamas terrorists in 2023 at age 19. In his first video published by Hamas in December, he said that “as an American, I’ve always believed in the power of the U.S.”

Israeli media reported that Alexander was in poor physical condition after his release — but he was smiling. In his first phone conversation with his mother, he reportedly laughed and even cracked jokes. Alexander reunited with his parents soon after in person at the Re’im base in Southern Israel. Trump’s representatives, Steve Witkoff and Adam Boehler, were also present at the first meeting point in Israel.

Hamas took 250 people captive from Israel on Oct. 7. About 20 of the 58 hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive.

In recent weeks, amid the psychological terror spread by Hamas, there were fears that Alexander had met the same fate as a fellow American, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was killed by his captors along with five other hostages in August. Two American hostages — Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen — were released in January as part of the six-week ceasefire deal that Witkoff helped finalize, based on terms first proposed by former President Joe Biden. The bodies of four others — Itay Chen, Omer Neutra, and Gadi and Judi Haggai — are still being held in Gaza.

Lieutenant Gov. Tahesha Way, who takes over duties in the governor’s absence, attended a community watch party in Tenafly, New Jersey.

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