Fox Nation, the streaming platform of Fox News, honored freed Hamas hostage Edan Alexander with an Honor Patriot Award during an event at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Long Island, N.Y., on Thursday.
Accepting the award on their son’s behalf, Adi and Yael Alexander said it was “a great honor.”
Adi conveyed his “huge, huge thanks” to President Donald Trump, and also thanked White House envoy Steve Witkoff for working “tirelessly, even before taking on his official envoy role,” to secure the hostages’ release.
A New Jersey native, Edan Alexander, 21, was taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, and spent nearly two years in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Edan has resumed his military service, said Adi, noting that while the decision hadn’t been an easy one, his son “went back to serve alongside his brothers to defend Israel.”
In a recorded message played at Thursday’s event, Edan Alexander said he was “honored to accept this recognition from the Fox Patriot Awards,” adding that “serving Israel and standing with America remains the greatest privilege of my life.”
He also thanked Trump for his “leadership and for standing with Israel and the hostages.”
“Your support makes this moment possible, and I am deeply grateful,” he said. “For my family, I want to thank you for never giving up on me, and to the soldiers still fighting and the families of the fallen, I carry your sacrifice with me every day.”
Benjamin Hall, a Fox News correspondent who survived a 2022 Russian attack while reporting from Ukraine, presented the award, which a committee selected, alongside Johnny Joey Jones, a Fox News co-host who lost both legs serving in Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine.
Hall created the new award in the name of his 10-year-old daughter Honor, who inspired him during the attack in Ukraine. He called Alexander “a remarkable survivor, someone that has also inspired so many people.”
Jones added that the award “is a testament to the courage, conviction and resilience you and your family have shown.”
“Amidst the horror, Edan never gave up and refused to let evil overcome good,” said Hall.
