U.S.-Israeli Ex-Hostage to Hamas: ‘You Gave Me Hell — I’ll Give You Hell’

Freed American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander returned this week to the Gaza border in IDF uniform and warned the Hamas terrorists who held him underground for 584 days that “you gave me hell — I’ll give you hell back,” saying his story “does not end with survival; it continues with service.”

Speaking Wednesday at the site of the Nova music festival massacre, Alexander addressed more than 1,000 Christian pastors, youth leaders, educators, and social media influencers attending the Ambassador Summit 2025, a week-long gathering organized by Friends of Zion founder Mike Evans and Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

The 21-year-old, who was the last living American citizen held hostage in Gaza when he was freed in May, told the crowd that standing again on the Gaza border in uniform — near the same area from which he was abducted on October 7 — was intentional and meant to signal directly to Hamas that he had returned.

“I know the language, I know their culture, I know a lot of things about these demons,” Alexander said, referring to the terror group. “There’s no way I’ll take this present and put it aside. I have to use it and return it. I wanted them to see I’ll never break and that I’ll return my favor. You gave me hell, I’ll give you hell back.”

Alexander was born in Tel Aviv and moved with his family to the United States when he was a baby, growing up in New Jersey and Maryland. He said that toward the end of high school he resolved, “as a Jew, as a Zionist,” to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces instead of going to college.

He arrived in Israel in August 2022, joined the elite Golani Brigade, and completed his training before deploying to the Gaza border. On October 7, 2023, he was manning a post near Kibbutz Kissufim, roughly 700 meters from the fence, when Hamas launched its surprise invasion, overran the position, and dragged him into Gaza.

Alexander spent a year and seven months in captivity, held in Hamas tunnels, safe houses, mosques, and schools, often malnourished and forced to drink seawater and eat dirty bread. Earlier reporting noted that he was at times kept in a cage, handcuffed, and subjected to weeks of interrogation — treatment he has described simply as “a year of hell.”

Reports also indicated that Hamas kept Alexander for extended periods near senior operatives — including Yahya Sinwar — in what was assessed as an effort to use him as a human shield because of his American citizenship.

He was released in May in a deal brokered by President Donald Trump ahead of the president’s trip to the region. Under the current Trump-facilitated ceasefire and hostage-return framework, all remaining living hostages have been returned, with only one Israeli body still believed to be held in Gaza.

After being handed to the Red Cross — which had not visited him once during his captivity — Alexander was transferred back to Israeli forces and later visited the White House, where President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcomed him. Alexander told Trump that his captors began treating him differently after the U.S. election because they feared the incoming president.

By September, Alexander publicly announced at a Friends of the IDF event in the United States that he intended to return to military service. Calling the 584 days in captivity “the hardest days of my life — days of struggle, pain and separation from my family,” he declared that “next month, God willing, I will return to Israel. I will once again put on the IDF uniform, and I will proudly serve alongside my brothers. My story does not end with survival. It continues with service.”

On Wednesday, standing in uniform at the Nova site, Alexander said he felt compelled to complete the full term of his service, not only the ten months he had completed before his abduction.

“After being [in captivity] for a year and seven months, I told myself there’s no way I made this whole process of coming here to Israel and drafting, going to a top unit for only ten months,” he said. “I said I need to complete the two years and eight months, or even more.”

He described his return to the Gaza border as an effort to “close the circle,” saying the knowledge he gained during his captivity — including language, cultural familiarity, and firsthand understanding of Hamas’s methods — is something he now intends to use for Israel’s defense.

The Ambassador Summit delegation, billed as the largest Christian group ever to visit Israel, is meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and senior defense and intelligence officials. The group also heard from several freed hostages, including Emily Damari, Tal Shoham, Moran Stella Yanai, and Aviva and Keith Siegel, who received the “Here Am I” Award for their advocacy.

Alexander’s family has expressed support for his decision to return to uniform. His mother, Yael, has said she was surprised but believes the move will help him move forward and “heal his soul” after nearly two years in captivity.

Returning to the same border where he was abducted, Alexander said his presence was meant to make one point unmistakably clear. “To show them I survived, I’m back, and I will never break,” he said. “You gave me hell? I’ll give you hell back.”