The Israeli army stated Plainview native Omer Neutra, a soldier who was believed to have been captured alive by Hamas in its Oct. 7, 2023, assault, was killed that day, with his physique taken into the Gaza Strip.
In an announcement on X, the Israel Defense Forces stated it confirmed his loss of life “based mostly on intelligence.” The 21-year-old Israeli-American was a platoon commander within the IDF, in response to the assertion, which included an undated {photograph} and the normal Jewish phrase used to specific condolences after a loss of life: “May his reminiscence be a blessing.”
The IDF press workplace didn’t reply to emailed questions in regards to the nature of the intelligence or the placement of Neutra’s stays, however Sen. Chuck Schumer’s workplace stated that Hamas had Neutra’s physique.
Neutra was certainly one of seven American Israelis believed to have been nonetheless held in Gaza, 4 of whom at the moment are stated to be lifeless. Hamas launched a video of 1, Edan Alexander, over the weekend, indicating he was nonetheless alive.
Neutra, a 2019 graduate of the Schechter School of Long Island and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, had deferred faculty to enlist within the IDF, his household has stated. He was serving close to the Gaza border, the place he was in command of a small base, when Hamas attacked Israel.
For greater than a yr since then, his mother and father, Ronen and Orna, led a public marketing campaign for his or her son’s freedom. They spoke at protests within the U.S. and Israel, addressed the Republican National Convention this yr and stored up ties with the Biden administration of their campaign to safe their son’s launch.
In an announcement Monday, President Joe Biden stated he and first woman Jill Biden have been “devastated and outraged” to study of Neutra’s loss of life.
“A Long Island native, Omer deliberate to return to the United States for faculty. He dreamed of dedicating himself to constructing peace,” the assertion stated. “To all of the households of these nonetheless held hostage: We see you. We are with you. And I cannot cease working to convey your family members again dwelling the place they belong.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who had issued an announcement on Thanksgiving calling for the secure return of Neutra and others taken by Hamas, adopted it up with a put up on X: “We simply realized that this prayer could not be answered for the household of Omer Neutra. Omer was barbarically murdered by Hamas within the Oct. 7 assaults. We pray that his physique will be returned to his household, who’ve been talking out for him & all hostages since that horrific day.”
State amenities will decrease flags to half-staff on the day of Neutra’s funeral, in response to Hochul’s workplace. That date shall be chosen by the Neutra household and publicly introduced in coming days.
Schumer, in an announcement, stated he was “devastated and heartbroken” and that he was “combating to convey Omer’s stays” and the 100 remaining Hamas hostages dwelling. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, in an announcement, stated Neutra’s “heroism and sacrifice won’t ever be forgotten.”
Reaction to Neutra’s loss of life was swift on Long Island.
“The information introduced me to tears,” stated Rick Lewis, chief govt of the Mid-Island Y JCC, who is aware of the Neutra household and met Monday with Jewish leaders from the area. “We’re all dumbfounded.”
For many locals, Lewis stated, the Neutra household “has turn into the Long Island illustration of the whole lot that is happening in Israel. We wish to keep away from any extra households ever going by means of the ache and struggling that they are going by means of.”
Lewis and others had pushed for months for the secure return of the hostages. “We cannot lose hope, as Omer’s mother and father did not lose hope till right this moment,” he stated.
Orna and Ronen Neutra, the mother and father of Omer Neutra, meet with Rep. Tom Suozzi in Chicago in August, hoping to safe the discharge of their son. Credit: Newsday/William Perlman
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) stated Neutra’s household had lived with “alternating deep sorrow and hopefulness, crushing nervousness and steely willpower … now they need to face the deep grief of the lack of their son and brother.”
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, in an e mail from a consultant, hailed Neutra as a “cherished Nassau County resident, a fellow American, and a devoted IDF soldier, whose life was tragically lower brief by acts of unimaginable terror.”
Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino ordered flags on city property to be flown at half-staff in honor of the Plainview resident.
Weeks earlier than the announcement of Neutra’s loss of life, his father, Ronen Neutra, stated the final yr of uncertainty about his security and whereabouts had been “crammed with agony — an agony no mum or dad ought to should undergo.”
The warfare in Gaza started when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 individuals, principally civilians, and taking round 250 hostage. About 100 are nonetheless held inside Gaza, round two-thirds believed to be alive.
Israel’s ongoing retaliatory offensive has killed a minimum of 44,429 Palestinians, greater than half of them ladies and youngsters, in response to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how most of the lifeless have been combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, with out offering proof.
The warfare has destroyed huge areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90% of the inhabitants of two.3 million, typically a number of instances.
Neutra joined the IDF after graduating from the Schechter School of Long Island in Williston Park in 2019, his household instructed Newsday after the Oct. 7 assault. “He’s an American; Jewish boy who loves each the American nation and the Israeli nation,” Ronen Neutra instructed Newsday on the time. “Everybody loves him, a sensible, cool child that was taken by Hamas. And, we have to convey him dwelling.”
Omer was raised on Long Island, the oldest of two sons. His mother and father have twin American-Israeli citizenship.
Neutra was an honors scholar, the captain of his basketball, soccer and volleyball groups and extremely energetic in a number of Jewish group organizations, in response to his mother and father. He served as regional president of the Metropolitan New York Region of United Synagogue Youth.
Late final summer time, Hamas killed one other Israeli-American hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, together with 5 different captives, whose our bodies the Israeli army stated it recovered.
The Biden administration stated it’s making one other push for a ceasefire and the discharge of the remaining hostages, after practically a yr of oblique negotiations between Israel and Hamas repeatedly stalled.
With AP
