Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.
I'm Sean Lay.
Now, the news today that Idan Alexander, a 21-year-old born in Tel Aviv but raised in New Jersey,
had been released by Hamas was a big surprise.
The last Israeli hostages to be released by their captors were freed on 22nd February.
Since then,
the ceasefire broke up between Israel and Hamas has collapsed and Israel has resumed its military operations in Gaza.
So today's dramatic news was unexpected and also hard to understand.
Mr Alexander had been seized when he was at the border during Hamas's attack on Israel on the 7th of October 2023.
Speaking ahead of his release, his grandmother, Varda Ben-Baruch,
said she was looking forward to seeing Idan again.
I want to thank President Trump,
Mr. Wyckoff and Adam Bowler for everything they did for Idan's release.
And God willing, they will continue to work for all the hostages who are still there in Gaza.
We want to see all of them, every last one, return to the land of Israel.
Well, unlike previous releases,
when Hamas exchanged hostages for Palestinians held prisoner by Israel,
Mr Alexander was freed after four-way talks between Hamas, Egypt, Qatar and the United States.
Earlier, I spoke to the BBC's Middle East correspondent, Ugo Bashega, in Tel Aviv.
Yeah,