The mother of an Israeli-American hostage from Long Island said Sunday that the expanding war in the Middle East is distracting the world from the plight of the captives.
“Of course we’re worried,” Orna Neutra said of her 22-year-old son Omer after a Central Park rally marking his second birthday spent as a hostage of the Palestinian terror group Hamas in Gaza.
“It is taking away attention from Gaza,” she said of the widening Mideast conflict.
Nearly 300 people gathered for the Manhattan rally to mark Omer’s 23rd birthday Monday and to call for all of the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip to be released and returned home.
“Today we celebrate your birthday once again while you’re in the terror dungeons of Hamas,” Omer’s father, Ronen, said at the rally. “But hope is mandatory.”
Omer, who grew up in Plainview and left to join the Israel Defense Force in Israel, was captured near his military base Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists launched a sneak attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and took about 250 hostage.
Officials believe about 100 captives are still being held.
Israel launched a counteroffensive in Gaza that has lingered for a year — with the conflict now expanding into Iran and Lebanon.
“We’re not grieving,” Orna said of her son. “We hope that he’s alive. That’s what we’re praying for.”
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