Connect with us

World

Omer Neutra found to be 48th American killed in Oct. 7 attack

Published

1 day ago

on

Omer Neutra found to be 48th American killed in Oct. 7 attack

play

Omer Neutra, an Israeli-American soldier long believed to be a hostage held by Hamas, was found to have been killed on Oct. 7, as the number of Americans confirmed dead by the U.S. in the Israel-Hamas war approaches 100.

Neutra, a 21-year-old platoon commander in Israel’s armored corps, was killed during the Hamas attack on Israel’s border more than a year ago, and his body was taken to Gaza, Israel’s defense forces announced on Monday.

He is one of 48 Americans confirmed by the State Department to have died in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which killed 1,200 Israelis in border communities and at a music festival. Yona Brief, 23, an Israeli-American combat medic wounded during in the attack, became the 47th American to die after he succumbed to his injuries last month, Ha’aretz reported.

In the ensuing violence, another 38 Israeli-Americans have died – it is unclear how many were serving in the IDF.

More: Trump pledges ‘hell to pay’ if Israeli hostages are not released before his inauguration

Other Americans killed in Gaza

The State Department said it was aware of the deaths of only three additional Americans in Gaza. It did not identify them.

John Flickinger, the father of Canadian-American Jacob Flickinger, one of the six World Central Kitchen aid workers killed in an Israeli drone strike in Gaza last April, told NPR the IDF’s internal investigation into his son’s death was inadequate. The U.S. Justice Department gave no indication it would investigate.

More: Hamas publishes video of US-Israeli hostage in Gaza

West Bank deaths left unresolved, families say

Similar questions remain around the deaths of three Americans killed in the West Bank over the past year.

Aysenur Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish-American, was shot dead by an Israeli soldier after she joined a protest in the West Bank in September. Eygi’s family has criticized the Biden administration for failing to further investigate her death by a gunshot to the head after video of the incident contradicted Israeli claims she was accidentally shot during a riot.

The families of Palestinian-Americans Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohammad Ahmad Alkhdour, both 17 when they died in Israeli gunfire, say their cases remain unsolved, and the U.S. has not completed investigations into their deaths.

Three American hostages still in Gaza

Meanwhile, three Americans are still held hostage in Gaza, and the bodies of four others have yet to be returned to their families.

Edan Alexander, 20, an Israeli-American from Long Island, New York, appeared in a hostage video released by Hamas on Saturday. In the less-than-4-minute video, filmed under duress, Alexander addressed his family, President-elect Donald Trump, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a mixture of Hebrew and English.

Keith Siegel, a 64-year-old American hostage, appeared in a Hamas hostage video last April. Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, the third American held hostage, were both abducted from two hard-hit Israeli border towns, during the Oct. 7 attack.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading