There are several ways to describe someone held against their will, each with its own implications. The word “prisoner” suggests someone detained on suspicion of crimes or captured during times of war. “Hostage,” on the other hand, signifies a civilian held against their will.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, corporate media outlets in the U.S. typically describe Israeli captives as “hostages,” even if they are soldiers, and Palestinian captives as “prisoners,” even if they are children.

This semantic choice was once again on display in the coverage of the release of dual American Israeli citizen Edan Alexander, a soldier in the Israeli military captured from an Israel Defense Forces outpost along the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, by Hamas militants. Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native, was freed after negotiations between Hamas and a U.S.-led delegation. His release kicked off Donald Trump’s Middle East trip, where the president is expected to meet with leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.

American news outlets on Monday referred to Alexander as “the last living American hostage” in Hamas custody. Anchors and analysts alike made little to no mention of his service with the IDF, instead grouping him with civilians who were also taken by Hamas. It’s an omission notable to Palestinians, who say that when the Israeli military captures their countrymen — even those who, unlike Alexander, are civilians — they are seldom granted a similar reception.

For Omar Baddar, a Palestinian American political analyst who was previously with the Institute for Middle East Understanding, the news coverage of Alexander is a perfect example of “anti-Palestinian bias” within media. Many outlets failed to mention crucial context, Baddar said, such as “his active membership in a foreign military at the time of his capture, and more precisely the Israeli occupation army that was enforcing the illegal blockade on Gaza” even before October 7.

“The humanizing coverage Alexander received and the deep concern about the conditions he was held in stands in sharp contrast to the thousands of Palestinian hostages who are rounded up by the Israeli military without any charge or trial to use as bargaining chips, and who are frequently brutalized beyond recognition, and who are sometimes killed in Israel’s dungeons without anyone in U.S. media even bothering to ask their names,” Baddar told The Intercept.