Attorneys for IDF Soldier Edan Alexander Decline to Confirm US Citizenship Trump Cited in Hamas Talks

When President Trump announced the release of Edan Alexander from Hamas captivity on May 11, 2025, he framed it as the return of an American.

"I am happy to announce that Edan Alexander, an American citizen who has been held hostage since October 2023, is coming home to his family."

The White House repeated the claim. The US Embassy in Jerusalem posted photos describing him as "the American Edan Alexander." ABC News and other outlets called him "the last living American citizen held by Hamas" or a "dual Israel-American citizen." On that basis, the Trump administration took the unusual step of negotiating directly with Hamas for his release, with hostage envoy Adam Boehler reportedly warning against harm to Alexander during the talks.

But according to a report by The Grayzone, Alexander was not a US citizen at the time of his capture. A source in contact with Alexander's family told the outlet that Alexander, born in Tel Aviv and raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, had been a permanent legal resident of the United States for several years, and only filed an application to become a naturalized US citizen with the State Department in the summer of 2025, after his release.

What the lawyers said

The source identified Alexander as a client of the immigration department at Mitchell, Silberberg and Knupp, a Los Angeles law firm. Reached by phone, attorney David Wulkan confirmed, with a simple "Yes," that a naturalization application had been filed with the State Department on Alexander's behalf. When pressed to confirm that Alexander was not a citizen, Wulkan grew guarded, asked to reconfirm the caller's identity, and said he could not answer without his client's permission. A follow-up email went unanswered.

Howard Shapiro, co-chair of the firm's immigration practice, confirmed Alexander was his client but declined to discuss the matter further, citing attorney-client privilege before ending the call. Neither attorney denied that Alexander lacked citizenship at the time of his capture.

The State Department did not respond to repeated calls and emailed questions from The Grayzone. Alexander's father, Adi Alexander, did not respond to emails or phone calls.

Disputed, not confirmed

No named source, including Alexander, his family, or the State Department, has directly confirmed or denied his citizenship status. The claim rests on an anonymous source and the attorneys' evasive, non-denial responses, which is enough to raise the question but not to settle it.

If accurate, the discrepancy would mean the US government negotiated directly with a designated terrorist organization, and implicitly threatened consequences on its behalf, for the release of an Israeli soldier presented to the American public as one of its own citizens. Trump's own words, and the White House's own statement, are the clearest record of that framing. Whether it was accurate is now in question.