Omer Neutra, a lone soldier from New York, grandson of Holocaust survivors and avid sports fan, was eventually brought to Israel to receive a proper burial.
Captain Omer Neutra, 21, was killed during the October 7 massacre and his body was taken by Hamas to the Gaza Strip before finally being returned to Israel on Sunday night.
Intelligence information that came to light allowed a special military commission composed of rabbis, scientists and lawyers to finally confirm his death some 14 months later, despite suspicions that he had been dead for a long time.
Neutra was a lone soldier from New York serving as a tank platoon commander in the 77th Battalion of the 7th Brigade. He had deferred his enrollment at Binghamton University to join the IDF with Garin Tzabar.
He was kidnapped in the Gaza Strip on October 7 along with members of his tank crew. One of those Neutra crew members was tank gunner Nimrod Cohen, who was freed last week after more than 736 days in captivity.
Omer loved sports, playing soccer, basketball, and volleyball and serving as captain of his school’s sports team.
A park in his memory
After his death, Neutra’s hometown of Plainview, New York, dedicated a city park, with a basketball court. One of his passions in life was basketball and he was a die-hard Knicks fan. He often wore basketball legend Kobe Bryant’s number 24.
Neutra loved her cats, Ronni and Lizi. Those closest to him knew him as a “smiling fool” and said he gave “powerful hugs.”
“His family and friends described him as a warm, optimistic, people-loving person who ‘lights up the room the moment he walks in,'” the forum added.
Neutra was known for his love of summer camps, having attended and taken on leadership roles at several camps, including but not limited to Sprout Lake, Camp Tel Yehud, and Camp Ramah in Nyack, and participated in USY on Wheels.
He was the grandson of Holocaust survivors, which led him to feel a great responsibility to defend Israel and serve the Jewish people. This deeply motivated him to enlist as a lone soldier in the IDF.
Neutra’s “bravery and sacrifice will never be forgotten,” Garin Tzabar, the program through which Neutra enlisted, said of him.
“We will continue to demand that Omer be brought home to rest in the land he fought to defend. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and loved ones during this unimaginable time,” the program further noted.