Omer Neutra, whose body was recently returned to Israel after being held hostage by Hamas for two years, was laid to rest today (Friday) at the Kiryat Shaul Military Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Omer, a Lone Soldier from Long Island, New York, was killed during the October 7 massacre, and his body was abducted to Gaza. Sgt. Nimrod Cohen, who served in the same tank as Omer and was freed in an earlier hostage deal, attended the funeral together with the family, as well as US CENTCOM Commander Adm. Bad Cooper. Israeli President Isaac Herzog also attended the funeral and eulogized him.
At the funeral, Omer's brother, Daniel, eulogized him: "In the last few years before October 7, reuniting as a family had become less and less frequent. But in those times, when we would all be in one place together after an extended period, I remember feeling, and actively thinking, that a missing piece was repaired. Something I had not even noticed as routines took hold when we departed. Suddenly, we’d have a full car and a full house, and you would roughhouse and torment me and force me to play games that I hated but actually loved. And I consciously thought, in those times when we were all together, how special it was. I never said it to you but I know you felt it too."
"And here we are all together again, after two and half years, our longest ever time apart. And I can’t even give you a hug, just look at a box. So close but so far," he said.
He noted that the family has now held two funerals for Omer, now and when they first learned that he was murdered on October 7. "Two funerals is far too many. But we have had many more than just two: we have said hundreds of eulogies, and spoken at dozens of stages and stations and newspapers and government halls."
"If there’s one small upside to this whole process, it’s that the urgent necessity to keep your story alive gave us ample time to gather stories of you from friends everywhere, to help your story inspire others, and to mourn your loss. As we poured your heart out into the world, we lived in your universe.
Daniel stated that "something was wrong about the shiva last year. When you sit in mourning for seven days, the tradition is that at the end of the seventh day, you stand up. The ability to stand up and move on is perhaps the most important part of the whole affair. But we didn’t have that privilege. Soon after the shiva I was brought to listen to recordings of your last moments in the tank. As you faced overwhelming force and smoke filled the tank, you gave the order to your squad mates to breathe through the ventilation, as you battled smoke to speak on your radio. You relentlessly called for backup, to aid your injured soldiers, but no one came."
"There’s an enormous and ever-growing list of all I want to tell you Omer, but not all of it can be said before a crowd of thousands. After two years, I finally have a place to have a private word with you, where I don’t need a microphone. And it’s not enough to fill that missing piece, but it better than shouting in the void. So for now I’ll just say: Thank you. You can rest now. You’re home," Daniel's eulogy concluded.
