LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Hostage families are calling for action in the valley, while reacting to the news of the recent killings of six hostages recovered in Gaza.
Like Ronen Neutra, and Orna Neutra, whose 22-year-old son has been held hostage for 3389 days.
They spoke to FOX5 about the fight to bring him and others home, and the hope they have that he is still alive.
“Parents don’t hear from their kids for 30 minutes. They lost them in the supermarket. They’re getting terrified,” Ronen Neutra said. “The last time we heard his voice was on Cctober 6th,” said Orna.
The next day, everything changed, as Hamas militants killed nearly 1,200 people, and took hundreds of hostages in an attack on Israel.
Including 22-year-old, Omer Neutra who grew up in New York, as well as another young hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
23-year-old Goldberg-Polin was one of six hostages whose bodies were recently found in Gaza. It’s something that isn’t lost on Omer’s parents.
“We were devastated. We’ve become very close to the family, and like Hersh’s mother said in her eulogy and his funeral, we could feel the release so close,” Orna Neutra said.
At the recent Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, a deal had been on the table for months, and Goldberg-Polin was supposed to come out in the first phase of it. But Omer’s parents just want a deal so they, and other hostage families can heal.
“It’s not going to be easy. It’s a terrible deal, but the lives of these many hostages are at stake. They could be shot dead any minute,” Ronen said.
Because of that, they’re calling on lawmakers to move the needle.
They say while Israel is moving too slowly, they are getting support in the states.
“We’ve seen commitment to this issue from both sides of the aisle. We think people understand this cannot become a political wedge. This is a humanitarian crisis,” Orna Neutra said.
While she wants those sides to talk, there isn’t much to say to those who took her son. “I have no conversation with them.”
Instead, his parents describe how they’re holding out hope they’ll get to see him again, in spite of not knowing for sure if he’s still here.
“We don’t, but we can feel him. We have to believe that because we don’t know otherwise,” Orna Neutra said.
Every time Omer Neutra’s parents do an interview, they change the duct tape on their shirts to the current day they have been without him.
Omer’s parents have been to Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and even Qatar in the Middle East to raise awareness, and make sure the hostages are not forgotten.
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