Route 232 on the Gaza border is quiet and dry. Along the road, there are many symbols and memorials from the October 7 attack. The concrete bus shelters near Kibbutz Reim and Alumim are covered with stickers commemorating the fallen. The area of the Nova festival is packed with cars. These were all areas of massacre 584 days ago.
There is an ever-present memory of the last nineteen months of war. However, this road 232 also became a site of hope on Monday, May 12, as hostage Edan Alexander was driven along it to the IDF’s Reim Base. It was night, around eight in the evening, but he was finally free from Hamas' hands.
I stood on the side of the road in the evening, waiting with two dozen people who had come to wave flags and wish Edan well. Journalists had come as well. This was a special community of people, a small brotherhood who had come to wait for another hostage to come home. Some of those who came have been here throughout the war; they have been here for the release of other hostages back in January and February 2025, when 33 hostages were freed in the ceasefire deal. They come out of a sense of duty.
In the evening of May 11, 2025, the news arrived that Edan Alexander, one of fifty-nine hostages still held in Gaza, was going to be released. There was an expectation about this news because US President Donald Trump wanted him freed. Alexander is the last living American hostage held by Hamas. The terrorist group also holds four other Americans: Itay Chen, Gadi Haggai, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Omer Neutra.
With the long-awaited release of Alexander came news that this had come together. US envoy Steve Witkoff and hostage envoy Adam Boehler both arrived in Israel to see Alexander released. His family also came. In New Jersey, people gathered early in the morning, waiting for news. This was a worldwide wait.
Edan Alexander crosses into Israeli territory by Re'im Air Base on Monday May 12, 2025. (credit: Seth J. Frantzman)
At the Reim base, the road 232 snakes along the border. It comes from communities such as Kibbutz Reim, Alumim, and Beeri, communities attacked in October. When one drives this road, they know they are in a special landscape. It was afternoon. The traffic is light.
There are some IDF vehicles and tanks on the back of large trucks designed to transport them. The fields are gold and brown. It’s spring, and it’s not quite stifling hot here, but soon it will become summer, and the landscape seems to be taking a deep breath before the heat sets in.
Near Camp Reim, an area had been set up for people to gather. These activists from the local Eshkol region have been coming here in the past to wave Israeli flags and yellow flags, symbolizing the desire to return the hostages. They have shirts calling for all the hostages to come home, “until the last one.”
There are police as well deployed to make sure that no one blocks the road. Police have been deployed along the whole route that Edan Alexander was expected to be transported along. As the sun dipped low in the sky, news came that Alexander had been handed over to the Red Cross. An image posted on social media showed a member of the Red Cross with Alexander, flanked by three terrorists. The terrorists were in camo and holding Steyr AUG rifles.
We have all gotten used to these “ceremonies” where Hamas would parade hostages. Reports had said that Hamas would not stage this ceremony. Apparently, Hamas had gotten word to downplay the release and not humiliate Alexander. By the time the sun was almost set, word came that Alexander was in the hands of the IDF and on the way to the border.
Over time, people waited, and several helicopters landed. Reports said Boehler had arrived with Alexander’s mother and that Steve Witkoff had also come. Israeli soldiers were waiting to receive the American envoys. Alexander was expected to be reunited with his family and then head to a hospital for check-ups.
A Hero's Welcome
Alexander is an IDF soldier from the Golani Brigade, and one of the people who came to the road to greet him had brought a Golani flag. Others waved flags from the Eshkol council. As time ticked by and the sunny day turned to dusk and dark grey and blue colors draped the fields, people heard that Alexander was finally on his way to the base.
The road was quiet, and the traffic stopped. Several wild dogs could be seen digging in the dirt by the road. Finally, headlights appeared, and then more and more, a line of vehicles drove slowly. The vehicles passed the small crowd that had turned out. Then the convoy slowly turned into the base and toward the meeting place.
It was dark now. Several members of the group called for the release of all the hostages “until the last one.” Then they gathered up their flags and began to head home. One said he would wait until the helicopter with Alexander was expected to lift off. The police blocking the road left as well.
Now the dark road beckoned. The 232 stretched back toward Sderot, along the border. I drove back toward Ashkelon. It was quiet, except for some cars plying this route. 584 days since the war began. Soon to be 585.
