Residents line streets to welcome home Israeli-American hostage
A smiling Mr Alexander held his arm out the passenger-side window to wave and touch the hands of people in the crowd.
The militant group Hamas released Mr Alexander, 21, on May 12 after 584 days. He has been in Israel since he was freed.
Thursday marked his first trip home to Tenafly, the suburb of New York City where he grew up and where his family still lives.
People in Tel Aviv watch a live broadcast of Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander's release from Hamas captivity (Oded Balilty/AP)
Mr Alexander was 19 when militants stormed his base in Israel and dragged him into the Gaza Strip.
He was among the 251 people taken hostage in Hamas' attack on October 7 2023.
Mr Alexander moved to Israel in 2022 after finishing high school and enlisted in the military.
Since his capture, there's been a huge outpouring of support for him in Tenafly, located in a county with a large Jewish and Israeli-American population.
The community held regular walks to raise awareness about him and the other hostages. Many gathered in May to celebrate his release.
'Edan's return is the return of everybody's child, every organisation, every family, every Israeli family, and non-Israeli, and non-Jews,' Orly Chen, a Tenafly resident, told CBS News New York on Thursday.
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Elsewhere, ranking it only two stars out of five, Nick Hilton wrote for the Independent: 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox knew that it was swimming in morally murky waters. 'The series was originally supposed to be called Blue Moon, but transitioned to its rather twee title ahead of release. And that should give some indication about the unusually bubbly tone of this eight-part series. ''Full of hope, curiosity and the naivety of youth, I embarked on my romantic Italian adventure,' Knox informs audiences, like she's setting up an episode of Amanda in Perugia. The series leans heavily on these voiceovers to explain Amanda's quirks (such as providing an impromptu gymnastics display at the police station or wearing a T-shirt to court bearing the slogan 'All you need is love' in all caps). 'The show's visual flourishes – like a juror juggling computer-generated ears to illustrate their exposure to inadmissible evidence – mirror its goofy, confident protagonist. 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Amanda told The Hollywood Reporter how she was nervous and had begged the event organizers to let her speak with Monica in private. The former White House intern obliged, and even made Amanda a pot of tea as she shared some guidance from her years trying to move past her sex scandal with then-President Bill Clinton. 'She had a lot of advice about reclaiming your voice and your narrative,' Amanda said. 'That ended up being a turning point for me.' Years later, Amanda shared her desire to tell her story on screen in an interview with The New York Times - and upon seeing it, Monica jumped on board. Together, the pair wound up assembling a creative team, including This Is Us executive producer K.J. Steinberg and famed producer Warren Littlefield, to create 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox,' a limited series for Hulu. After years of planning, the duo celebrated the premiere of the show on the red carpet Tuesday. Just hours earlier, Amanda released the latest episode of her podcast, Hard Knox, in which she and Monica spoke of the importance of telling the stories of those who survived scandal. Speaking of the decision, Monica noted that she does not often pay attention to a story after it fades from headlines. 'I don't think about "How is this person rebuilding their life?"' she said, her voice cracking as she apparently started to tear up. Amanda served four years in an Italian prison before being cleared of murdering her former student flatmate Meredith Kercher (pictured) in 2007 It was Amanda that had discovered Meredith's bedroom door locked and blood in their bathroom, but after police in Italy noticed her acting odd she became a suspect. Amanda pictured speaking to the media during a brief press conference in front of her parents' home in 2015 But, she said, she thinks it is important to 'understand, as my therapist calls it, the long tale of trauma - and that it's not even just the person, but the collateral damage for people's families.' 'It's not the story of like, being a person and being gutted and then building your life back. 'And having to find yourself again,' Monica said, noting that both of their scandals arose when they were in their 20s. 'You think you know everything, you think you know who you are and it's then ripped away from you,' she reflected. 'It's reconfigured and reflected back to you as a monster that you never saw yourself as, that you actually aren't.' During that time, Amanda said, 'it's hard to remember that you have value as a human.' 'I think it's a better product because I was able to share really personal and intimate things about, you know, my life that wasn't just like a Hollywood gloss over reality,' she added. 'Like it becomes dirtier in a good way because it has all the messy humanity and you have all these scenes that I, you know, remember being in the writer's room being like, "This is an actual thing that has happened" and they were like, "You can't make this stuff up."' But the duo also sought to play on the 'anatomy of bias,' aiming to showcase how events unfold and are perceived through different people's perspectives. 'It's the way we story tell and it's the way we process a story in our own minds that is impacted by everything we're bringing to that moment that has been shaped by bias upon bias upon bias,' Lewinsky said. 'Every interaction that we have with a person is not just a straight interaction,' Knox added. 'It is colored by the context that we all carry. 'All of us are little universes inside of ourselves and we collide with each other,' she said. The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox airs on Hulu, and stars Grace Van Patten in the titular role. Elsewhere, Amanda recently said she believes the spirit of her murdered roommate Meredith Kercher still 'haunts' her. Speaking with People, she however clarified that this is 'not in that bad way that people sort of project on to me'. 'More in this benevolent spirit who is reminding me of the value of life, the privilege it is to live and the privilege it is to fight for your life,' Amanda added. 'Because she fought for hers.' Despite being freed and declared innocent, Amanda told the outlet that she has never been allowed to fully live her life. She added: 'There's always this subtext, like "Look at Amanda living her life while Meredith is dead." 'Any expression of life in my life is seen as an offense to the memory of my friend who got murdered.' She also said that she had panicked when she found out she was pregnant with her first daughter Eureka, 3. 'I did not want the first instance of my daughter's existence into this world [to] be a headline like "Amanda gives birth to know who will never get to have a daughter? Meredith",' she added. It was Amanda that had discovered Meredith's bedroom door locked and blood in their bathroom, but after police in Italy noticed her acting odd she became a suspect. At the time, Amanda put the blame on her boss at a local bar she worked at, Patrick Lumumba, who had a solid alibi, which only increased police suspicions. After an immense investigation and trial, Amanda, who was 20 years old at the time was convicted for the crime in 2009. She was sentenced to 26 years in prison for faking a break-in, defamation, sexual violence, and murder. In January of this year the defamation conviction was upheld by Italy's highest court over her comments about Lumumba. Amanda shared a video of herself weeping after the conviction was upheld, saying it was 'disappointing'. She also added on X: 'I've just been found guilty yet again of a crime I didn't commit'. Her lawyers said she accused Lumumba during a long night of questioning and under pressure from police, who they said fed her false information. The European Court of Human Rights found that t he police deprived her of a lawyer and provided a translator who acted more as a mediator. Rudy Hermann Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was eventually convicted of murder after his DNA was found at the crime scene. Guede was freed in 2021, after serving most of his 16-year sentence. Amanda returned to the US in 2011 after being freed and has established herself as a global campaigner for the wrongly convicted. She has a podcast with her husband, Christopher Robinson, and has a new memoir coming out next week titled, 'Free: My Search for Meaning.'
