Israeli-American soldier Omer Neutra, from Plainview, was killed in Oct. 7 Hamas attack, military confirms

Jewish leaders and other Long Islanders reacted with shock Monday after the Israeli military announced that Plainview native Omer Neutra, an Israeli soldier once thought to be alive in Hamas captivity, had been killed the day of Hamas' attack more than a year ago.

In a statement on X, the Israeli Defense Forces said it confirmed Neutra's death "based on intelligence."

The 21-year-old was a platoon commander in the Israeli Defense Forces, according to the statement, which included an undated photograph of him and the traditional Jewish phrase used to express condolences after a death: "May his memory be a blessing."

The IDF release said Neutra's body had been "held in Gaza" since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. The IDF press office did not respond to emailed questions about the nature of the intelligence or the location of Neutra's remains.

The office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Hamas had Neutra's body.

'An unimaginable nightmare'

A representative for Neutra's parents, Ronen and Orna Neutra, on Monday released a statement from the family that said in part: "It was an unimaginable nightmare to be acting based on the hope that he was alive, despite having little information or signs of life since he was seen on video being taken." Omer Neutra "fought to the end" out of an "isolated, disabled tank," they wrote. "The grief is heavy," they added, calling on American and Israeli leaders to use "all of their leverage" to return the remaining hostages, both living and dead, to their families. 

News of Neutra's death "brought me to tears," said Rick Lewis, chief executive of the Mid-Island Y JCC, who knows the Neutra family and met Monday with Jewish leaders from the region. "We're all dumbfounded."

Neutra, a 2019 graduate of a Williston Park Jewish day school, Schechter School of Long Island, was serving near the Gaza border, where he was in charge of a small base when Hamas attacked, Newsday has reported.

Militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 250 more, including children, holding them as hostages in Gaza in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Nearly half the hostages were released in November 2023 in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Of the roughly 100 hostages thought to be still in Gaza, Israel estimates that two-thirds are alive.

For many Long Islanders, Lewis said, the Neutra family had "the representation of everything that's going on in Israel. We want to avoid any more families ever going through the pain and suffering that they're going through."

At Dix Hills Jewish Center, Rabbi Howard Buechler said that, for members of his congregation who had attended school with Neutra at Schechter or gotten to know the family over the past year, the announcement was "shattering."

Proud of his service

Buechler said members of his congregation were proud of Neutra for serving in the IDF. The rabbi said he'd seen Neutra's face every day on a poster affixed to the synagogue wall soon after Oct. 7, 2023: some 400 days. "He's been in our shul, in our hearts, in our prayers. We are beyond traumatized that his only homecoming will be for a burial and memorial service."

Lewis and Buechler said they hoped Neutra's death would catalyze efforts to bring home remaining hostages. 

Rabbi Anchelle Perl, director of Chabad of Mineola, said he was asking congregants to perform mitzvahs — good deeds derived from religious commandments — in Neutra's memory.

"He was a holy young man who came from holy parents," Perl said. "We should continue his legacy of life, even as we send our condolences to his parents." 

Neutra, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, deferred college at Binghamton University to enlist in the IDF, Newsday has reported. He was an honors student; the captain of his basketball, soccer and volleyball teams; and highly active in several Jewish community organizations, according to his parents, who said they spoke to him by phone the day before the attack.

The Neutras, both dual American-Israeli citizens who had lived in Israel and served in the IDF, campaigned for their son's release, meeting with President Joe Biden last December, addressing the Republican National Convention in July and speaking at gatherings on Long Island, across the United States and in Israel. 

At an October 2023 rally after the attack, Orna Neutra addressed her missing son: "We love you very much ... And we know we will be together again soon."

'An American, a good Jewish boy'

In an interview last year with Newsday, Ronen Neutra described his son as "an American; a good Jewish boy who loves both the American country and the Israeli country." This fall, after more than a year of uncertainty about the couple's son, he told Newsday that not knowing had been "an agony no parent should have to go through."

Shortly after the 2023 attack, Neutra's photograph was one of roughly 230 hung on empty chairs at a Shabbat service at Woodmere's Young Israel.

Hundreds chanted "Bring Omer home" at a rally at Plainview-Old Bethpage Community Park. "We feel the urgency," Rabbi Joel Levenson of the Midway Jewish Center in Syosset, where the Neutras worshipped, told the crowd.

In a statement Monday, Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden were "devastated and outraged" to learn of Neutra's death.

"A Long Island native, Omer planned to return to the United States for college. He dreamed of dedicating himself to building peace," Biden's statement said. "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."

In a statement in Hebrew on X, Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu called Neutra "a man of values, blessed with talents and a Zionist in every inch of his limbs. He immigrated to Israel to enlist in the IDF, chose a combat path and was chosen to command and lead. This is what he did at the outbreak of the war on October 2023, when he fought fiercely at the head of his soldiers to defend the settlements surrounding Gaza, until he fell."

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who had issued a statement on Thanksgiving calling for the safe return of Neutra and others taken by Hamas, followed it up Monday with a post on X: "We just learned that this prayer couldn't be answered for the family of Omer Neutra. Omer was barbarically murdered by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks. We pray that his body can be returned to his family, who have been speaking out for him & all hostages since that horrific day." 

Long Island's elected officials, including many who championed the Neutra family's cause over the past year, also issued statements Monday.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, in an email from a representative, hailed Omer Neutra as a "cherished Nassau County resident, a fellow American, and a dedicated IDF soldier, whose life was tragically cut short by acts of unimaginable terror."

With AP