Long Island soldier presumed killed in Oct. 7 attack remembered in memorial service

A memorial service was held on Long Island Tuesday for an Israeli American soldier from New York who was believed to have been taken hostage alive on Oct. 7, 2023, and is now presumed to have been killed during Hamas’ attack and his body taken into Gaza, according to the Israel military.

Omer Neutra was a Long Island native who enlisted in the Israeli military and was captured when Hamas attacked southern Israel. Neutra’s parents, Ronen and Orna, led a public campaign while he was thought to be alive for their son’s freedom. They spoke at protests in the U.S. and Israel, addressed the Republican National Convention this year and kept up ties with the Biden administration in their crusade to secure their son’s release.

The Israeli military announced Monday it had determined the 21-year-old was not taken alive by Hamas but was killed during the group’s surprise attack on the Nova Music Festival that sparked the latest conflict in the Middle East. His body was then taken into the Palestinian territory of Gaza, where it remains.

Neutra’s family had held out hope he was still alive after being ambushed and pulled out of his disabled tank while trying to defend Israel’s border from Hamas forces.

In the statement announcing his death, the military did not say how it came to the conclusion over Neutra’s fate. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, said in a joint statement that he “fought fiercely at the head of his soldiers” to defend Israeli settlements “until he fell.”

They added that they “will not rest or be silent” until his body is recovered from the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Speaking at a memorial service Tuesday at the Long Island synagogue where his son celebrated his bar mitzvah years earlier, Ronen Neutra said he was at a loss for words.

After spending months telling his son’s story and pleading for his release at numerous rallies in the U.S. and abroad, news of his death “left us breathless and empty,” he said.

“For over a year now, we’ve been breathing life into your being, my beautiful boy,” Orna Neutra, Omer’s mother, said through tears. “With the hope and love of so many, we kept going and going and going, keeping you alive, speaking your name from every outlet, pushing any hint of despair, not stopping to breathe or to take in the deep pain of your absence.”

“Now things are clear,” she told the packed service at the Midway Jewish Center in Syosset. “But not as we’d hoped.”

Neutra's family said in a statement on Monday that they have spent the last 423 days living through an "unimaginable nightmare."

Daniel Neutra, Omer’s younger brother, vowed the family would continue to honor his life’s work by continuing to call for the release of the remaining hostages and an end to the war.

“It is too late for him, but it was not in vain,” he said.

Ronen Neutra called Israel his son’s “true love” and said he had insisted on serving on the frontline. His unit was among the first to respond to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

“You gave too much, too soon,” Orna Neutra said.

Neutra was born in Manhattan a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The grandson of Holocaust survivors, he attended Schechter School, a conservative Jewish school on Long Island where he was captain of the basketball, soccer and volleyball teams. His parents have said he was offered admission to the State University of New York at Binghamton, but instead deferred, took a gap year and then moved to Israel to enlist in the army.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was among the lawmakers in attendance at Tuesday's memorial service.

"A sad day for us all," she said as she entered the synagogue.

Biden and first lady Jill Biden said in a statement Monday they were “devastated and outraged” to learn of Neutra’s death. They said he planned to return to college in the U.S. and “dreamed of dedicating himself to building peace.”

“To all the families of those still held hostage: We see you. We are with you. And I will not stop working to bring your loved ones back home where they belong,” the statement reads.

Funeral services for Neutra were held Monday at Temple Chaverim in Syosset.

Hochul ordered flags lowered to half-mast on the day of Neutra's funeral. The governor expressed grief and outrage on Monday, saying "as a parent, I can't imagine what they're going through today."

As recently as Sunday, Neutra's parents had been urging world leaders to win the hostages’ release, including at a rally in Central Park. He was one of seven American Israelis still held in Gaza, four of whom are now said to be dead. Hamas released a video of one, Edan Alexander, over the weekend, indicating he was still alive.

Hamas had released hostage video of Alexander, who was serving in the Israeli military when he was taken by Hamas to Gaza. Filmed under apparent duress, Alexander called on Trump to work to negotiate for his freedom and that of the remaining Hamas hostages.

Hamas is still holding around 100 hostages inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. The Biden administration says it is making another last-ditch push for a ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages, after nearly a year of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas repeatedly stalled.

Diplomats see a potential opening after last week’s ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, an ally of Hamas that began launching rocket attacks and trading fire with Israel the day after the Oct. 2023 attack.

The fragile ceasefire has held despite repeated Israeli strikes that have angered Lebanese officials but not yet triggered a response from Hezbollah. Israel says it has acted to thwart potential attacks.

In late summer, Hamas killed Hersh Goldberg-Polin, another prominent Israeli American hostage, along with five other captives, whose bodies the Israeli military recovered.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Some 100 captives are still held inside Gaza, around two-thirds believed to be alive.

In a post on his Truth Social site, Trump called for Palestinian militants to free all of the roughly 100 Israeli hostages still held inside Gaza, around two-thirds of whom are believed to be alive.

If not, Trump said, “Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!”

It was not immediately clear whether Trump was threatening to directly involve the U.S. military in Israel’s ongoing campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Trump allies have said he hopes there will be a ceasefire and hostage release deal before he returns to office early next year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on Trump's post though President Isaac Herzog welcomed it.

"Thank you and bless you Mr. President-elect @realDonaldTrump," he wrote on X. "We all pray for the moment we see our sisters and brothers back home!"

Israel’s ongoing retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,429 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war has destroyed vast areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90% of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.