Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Monday that 33 hostages had been killed during the almost 14-month-old war with Israel in Gaza, without clarifying their nationalities.
The Israeli military said on Monday an Israeli American soldier who was believed to have been taken hostage alive on October 7, 2023, is now presumed to have been killed during Hamas’ attack and his body taken into Gaza.
Omer Neutra, 21, was a New York 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 US 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.
In a statement announcing the death, the military did not say how it came to the conclusion over Neutra’s fate. 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.
In late summer, Israel said Hamas killed Hersh Goldberg-Polin, another prominent Israeli American hostage, along with five other captives, whose bodies the Israeli military recovered.
Israeli forces bombarded houses in overnight attacks in the northern Gaza Strip, including one airstrike that killed at least 15 people in a home sheltering displaced people in the town of Beit Lahiya, Palestinian medics said on Monday.
The three barely operational hospitals in the area were unable to cope with the wounded from the attack, and a number of other people were still missing with rescue workers unable to reach them, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said.
Residents said clusters of houses were bombed and some set ablaze in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, three towns on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip where the Israeli army has been operating for weeks.
They said Israeli drones had also dropped bombs outside a school sheltering displaced families in Beit Lahiya, part of what residents have described as a campaign to scare people into leaving.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.
