AVIV TEL According to Israel’s military on Monday, an American Israeli soldier who was believed to have been taken alive by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack was actually slain that day and his body transported into the Gaza Strip.
According to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katzsaid on X, Omer Neutra, a 21-year-old New York native who emigrated to Israel and served as a tank platoon leader, was slain in combat and abducted.
In a post on X, Omer stated that his life narrative and passion exemplify the best and strongest we have created as a country. He claimed that Neutra was killed in combat in Nir Oz, one of the hardest-hit places when Hamas militants overran southern Israel. Nir Oz is a kibbutz that is fewer than two kilometers from the fenced-off border with Gaza.
The military did not, however, explain how it arrived at the decision about Neutra’s death. It further stated that he had received a posthumous promotion to captain.
Israel estimates that during the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror strikes, about 250 people were taken prisoner and 1,200 were killed. Although one-third are thought to be dead, about 100 people are still in captivity.
According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an advocacy group for people held captive and their families, Neutra was born and raised in the United States before moving to Israel as a lone soldier and joining the Armored Corps.
It added in a statement today that Hamas was still holding his body hostage.
His brother Daniel and parents Ronen and Orna survive Neutra.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, offered the family his deepest sympathies. In a statement, he stated, “We share in the family’s heavy grief and we will continue to act resolutely and tirelessly until we return all of our captives, both the living and the dead.”
During her March meeting with Omer’s parents, New York Governor Kathy Hochul also expressed her condolences to Neutra’s family. In a post on X, she expressed her hope that his body will be given to his family, who have been advocating for him and all hostages since that terrible day.
The parents of Neutra demanded a ceasefire and a hostage-release agreement with Hamas in an interview with NBC News’ “TODAY” in September.
Every morning, we essentially ask ourselves, “What are we doing today to try and bring him out?” Ronen added that it was crucial that the hostages not be forgotten.
Two days prior to Neutra’s passing, Edan Alexander’s mother, an Israeli American hostage, told NBC News that she was both relieved and shocked to see her son in a propaganda video released by Hamas.
I’m very relieved to see that he’s still strong in this video. In a video conversation on Saturday, hours after the video with the phrase, “Time is running out,” was uploaded to the Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, on Telegram, Yael Alexander stated, “It was amazing.”
The 20-year-old, who is seen in the Hamas video under duress, urges President-elect Donald Trump to use his influence to negotiate the release of those still held captive in Gaza.
Talks to secure the release of the remaining hostages or a halt to fighting with Hamas in Gaza, where more than 44,000 people have been killed in 14 months of war, have not shown much progress, despite the appearance of a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.
In an attempt to negotiate an agreement with Israel that would secure the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian inmates, Hamas leaders met with Egyptian security officials on Sunday.
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