The bodies of 13 deceased hostages are believed to still be in Gaza.
U.S. officials -- including Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner -- traveled to Israel this week for high-level meetings, discussing the next steps in the delicate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire deal by withholding the bodies of the remaining 13 deceased hostages thought to have died during or after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas has said the return of the remaining bodies "may take some time" due to the destruction.
A coffin of a deceased Israeli has been transferred to Israeli custody and remains in Gaza, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said. The coffin will next be taken to Israel and will head to the Israeli Ministry of Health’s National Center for Forensic Medicine.
A coffin has been transferred to the Red Cross in Gaza and is now on its way to be handed over to Israeli troops, Israeli officials said.
Omer Neutra, who grew up on Long Island, is one of two deceased American Israeli hostages who remains held by Hamas, and his parents are desperate for his body to be returned.
“Omer does not deserve to end up under the rubble in Gaza. He needs to be brought home, and he needs to be buried with dignity,” his mother, Orna Neutra, told ABC News.
Orna Netura described the past week as “insane,” saying every night she and her husband have been given the news that a small number of deceased hostages will be returned. Only hours later, normally in the middle of the night, the couple gets a call to say it’s not their son.
Asked what it would mean to her to give her son a proper burial, she said she’s been imagining the moment that he’s brought back.
“I know I’m going to be devastated, but I also know it’s really necessary,” she said.
Omer Neutra was a captain in the Israel Defense Forces on Oct. 7 and his parents learned of his death more than one year later. Omer’s dad, Ronen Neutra, described him as a “fun loving kid” and a “born leader,” and said people “gravitated to him.”
-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge
The Red Cross is on its way to a meeting point in southern Gaza to receive a coffin of a deceased Israeli and transfer it to the Israel Defense Forces, the IDF and the Israeli Security Agency said in a joint statement.
