Meet the Five American Hostages Still Held By Hamas

Meet the five American hostages who are still held by Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in Gaza.  

In addition, follow AJC's Explainer, Who Are the Israeli Hostages Being Released? Full Schedule and Latest Updates, for real-time updates. AJC also breaks down what you need to know about the Palestinian Prisoners Freed in the Hostage Agreement and What the Hostages Endured in Hamas Brutal Captivity.

1. Edan Alexander

Edan Alexander’s sister Mika describes him as her best friend. Growing up in Tenafly, New Jersey, whenever any of their favorite artists put out a new album, Edan would grab the car keys and take his sister for a drive so they could analyze every song.

A happy-go-lucky guy, a champion swimmer for his high school team, and a big fan of the New York Knicks, Edan spent most of his young life in Tenafly. But he was born in Israel just a few months before his parents moved to the U.S. He spoke Hebrew at home and visited Israel often to see both sets of grandparents. He even celebrated his bar mitzvah there.

His mother, Yael, was surprised when Edan announced his senior year in high school that he wanted to postpone college and try Garin Tzabar, a program founded in 1991 for young Jewish adults who want to explore serving as lone soldiers in Israel’s Defense Forces.

Edan and 16 other American high school graduates, including a classmate in Tenafly, moved to a kibbutz and did four months of training before committing to serve in the IDF. He returned for a visit home in August and expected to return again in April for his brother Roy’s bar mitzvah.

He was on patrol at a kibbutz on the morning of October 7 and called his mother after the Hamas attacks began.

“I told him at the end of the call: ‘Listen to me, Edan. I'm here. I'm with you. I love you. Just protect yourself. Just be safe,’” Yael recalled on AJC’s podcast, People of the Pod. “And that's it, we hang up. I didn't know I'm not gonna hear from him again.” On November 30, 2024, Edan was seen in an undated Hamas propaganda video.

2. Itay Chen 

Itay Chen, 19, is the youngest American hostage in Hamas captivity. After months of holding out hope that their son would return, Chen’s parents, Ruby and Hagit Chen, learned that he died on October 7 defending civilians living in an agricultural area near the Gaza border. His body is still being held by Hamas. 

Born in the U.S., Itay grew up in Israel, in the city of Netanya, just north of Tel Aviv, but the family frequently visited his father’s hometown of New York. He was a Boy Scout who played basketball and, like many teenagers, loved his PlayStation. 

The fun-loving middle child, he was also the “life of the party” and the “connector” of their family, his father said. The only reason he was on duty that day was because he had switched weekends with another soldier so he could attend his brother’s Bar Mitzvah the following week. 

3. Gadi Haggai 

“Here in the fields, we are full of fear. People are dying, and birds aren’t flying.”

Those prescient lyrics, composed in the 1980s by Gadi Haggai, capture the last moments of the musician’s life on the morning of October 7. Haggai, 73, died face down in a field as Hamas rockets streaked across the sky and terrorists stormed his kibbutz, kidnapping and murdering its residents.  

Haggai, 73 was a retired chef, jazz musician, father of four, grandfather of seven, exercise guru, and pacifist. During his mandatory military service, he served as the first flutist in the IDF orchestra. 

After several years in the U.S. pursuing a jazz career, Haggai returned to Israel where he met his wife Judi, an American-Canadian volunteer. The couple founded their own jazz orchestra called the Jazz Union. Unable to support his wife and four children as a musician, he studied cooking and the family eventually moved to Kibbutz Nir Oz where Gadi served as chef.

Gadi and Judi had been on their daily stroll outside Kibbutz Nir Oz when rockets and gunfire tore through the early morning tranquility. Laying face down in the field, they called their daughter in Singapore to tell her what they saw. Shortly after, Haggai was shot by terrorists on a motorcycle. Paramedics tried to send an ambulance, but it was struck by a rocket en route. Though Israel confirmed his death in December, his body is still being held by Hamas.

4. Judi Weinstein Haggai Z”L

Born in New York and raised in Toronto, Judi Weinstein Haggai, 70, made aliyah to Israel in 1976. There, she and her husband built a life around music, art, family, and healthy living. They ate a plant-based diet and walked every morning, which is why they were in a field near Kibbutz Nir Oz in the early morning hours of October 7. 

Even after decades in Israel, Judi still added ing to every verb she spoke in Hebrew. English was the language in which she wrote and which she taught both Israeli and Palestinian students.

As the security situation along the Israel Gaza border deteriorated, Judi introduced mindfulness into her curriculum, to help her students cope with their anxieties. Following retirement, she continued helping children with anxiety through puppeteering.

In addition to her books of poetry, Judi practiced her own mindfulness by writing haikus, which she posted on her Facebook page daily. She posted her last verse on the morning of October 7.

“pulse accelerates

mind makes new connections

as Fall shows her face”

Judi called paramedics when her husband was shot that morning. But the ambulance never made it. Terrorists returned and shot Judi too. Her death was confirmed in December, six days after her husband’s, but her body remains in Hamas captivity.

5. Omer Neutra Z”L

Omer Neutra, 22, another grandson of Holocaust survivors, was born in Manhattan a month after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, and more than a year after his parents immigrated from Israel.

A loyal Knicks fan, he knew the stats of every player, led the local chapter of the United Synagogue Youth group, and served as captain of the basketball, volleyball, and soccer teams at the Conservative Jewish school he attended from first grade until high school graduation.

After being accepted to Binghamton University in 2020 to study business and medicine, Omer decided to take a gap year in the country where his parents were raised – and stayed, opting to serve in the Israel Defense Force’s tank brigade.

When Hamas attacked, Omer’s team drove two miles to the border, where Hamas militants ambushed his tank with rocket-propelled grenades. On December 2, 2024, The Hostages Families Forum and IDF confirmed that Omer was murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and his body kidnapped into Gaza.

How AJC is Advocating for the Hostages and Their Families: Since Hamas’ massacre of Israelis, AJC has been advocating side-by-side with more than 50 hostage families—during their visits to the United States and Europe—to keep their stories front of mind for officials at the highest levels of leadership across society, including with more than 200 members of Congress, multiple national media outlets, the U.S. State Department, major U.S. administration officials, high-ranking diplomats, faith leaders, and more.