The parents of slain Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra paid their bittersweet thanks to President Trump and his team after the IDF captain’s body was returned from Gaza Sunday night.
Heartbroken mother Orna Neutra, of Plainview, New York, said Monday that her family’s nightmare has ended following news that Neutra, 21, was among the latest bodies released by Hamas.
“For 758 days, we lived between hope and heartbreak,” Orna told a crowd in Israel. “Today, that long nightmare ends with the knowledge that Omer is finally home.
“We can begin the process of bringing Omer to his final resting place in the land he loved and fought to protect,” she added.
Neutra, a Long Island native who gave up his acceptance to Binghamton University to take a gap year and serve in the IDF, was among the soldiers killed and taken captive by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
His body remained in Gaza for more than two years until it was finally released along with two other corpses over the weekend as part of the Trump-brokered peace deal between Hamas and Israel.
Ronen Neutra, Omer’s father, said despite the heartbreak, he was proud of his son for deciding to join the IDF of his own volition following his trip to Israel in 2020.
“He understood that our people are one — in Israel and in the diaspora — and that Israel’s strength depends on that connection,” Ronen said.
The couple gave a special thanks to Trump, his special envoy Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner for their work in securing the cease-fire deal that saw Neutra freed.
The Neutras also thanked supporters who gathered daily at Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square since the start of the war to demand the release of the hostages.
“You turned immense pain into meaning — and created a place of true togetherness,” the parents said in a statement.
The Neutras called on that same energy to continue for the remaining eight hostages whose bodies are still being held in Gaza, including fellow Israeli-American Itay Chen, 19.
“Omer’s return marks the end of our family’s long night, but it cannot be the end of our collective mission,” the family said.
“We will continue to fight — with the same clarity and conviction that carried us until this day — until every hostage is brought home and every family can find the same measure of closure we now begin to have.”
