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Lawmakers hold moment of silence for slain Omer Neutra as thousands mourn in hometown synagogue

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Lawmakers hold moment of silence for slain Omer Neutra as thousands mourn in hometown synagogue

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A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday night held a moment of silence for American-Israeli Omer Neutra who was determined this week to have been killed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, after it was believed that he had been alive for more than a year.

Neutra, 21 years old, was a tank platoon commander in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and was among the first to respond to the Hamas attack that ultimately killed some 1,200 people and initially saw the abduction of more than 250 men, women and children. 

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His parents, Orna and Ronen, who spoke with Fox News Digital just days prior to the tragic development, believed their son was still alive after the IDF had long assessed that he, along with Nimrod Cohen, another soldier from his tank, were taken hostage into Gaza and remained alive.

An image of Omer Neutra is displayed at his memorial service Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024 at the Midway Jewish Center in Syosset, N.Y. (AP Photo/Philip Marcelo) (AP Photo/Philip Marcelo)

7 US HOSTAGES STILL HELD BY HAMAS TERRORISTS AS FAMILIES PLEAD FOR THEIR RELEASE: ‘THIS IS URGENT’

“For 420 days Omer’s parents and his brother Daniel have done everything they can with the love and support of hundreds of thousands of others to free their son from captivity,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., who represents the Neutra family’s district, said from the House floor. “Every day they soldiered on through alternating deep sorrow and brief bursts of hopefulness. They went from crushing anxiety to steely determination. 

“Just a few days ago we learned that this courageous young man, this bright light, this courageous idealist, made the ultimate sacrifice,” Suozzi continued. “Omer had not been alive for the last 422 days, he was murdered on Oct. 7.”

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Footage from the attack on Omer’s tank showed the commander, as well as three others, Shaked Dahan, Oz Daniel and Nimrod Cohen being pulled from the military vehicle by Hamas terrorists and being taken captive. 

Daniel and Dahan had previously been assessed to have been killed following the attack, and according to the IDF, intelligence now suggests Omer, a descendant of Holocaust survivors, was also killed on Oct. 7. 2023.

Omer Neutra family

Syosset, N.Y.: Daniel Neutral, brother of Omar Neutra, surrounded by father Ronen Neutra and mother Orna Neutra at the Midway Jewish Center on Dec. 3, 2024 in Syosset, New York speak during a memorial service for Omer Neutra, an Isaeli-American who was killed by Hamas militants.  (Howard Schnapp/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

AMERICAN FATHER OF HAMAS HOSTAGE ITAY CHEN PUSHES US, ISRAEL ON ‘PLAN B’ AS NEGOTIATIONS FALTER

The Israeli military has not said how they came by this new information and the fate of Cohen remains unknown.

In a memorial service held for Omer on Tuesday in the Long Island synagogue where he reportedly celebrated his bar mitzvah years earlier, Omer’s father Ronen, said the news had left them “breathless and empty.”

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“For over a year now, we’ve been breathing life into your being, my beautiful boy,” Orna said through tears, according to reports. “With the hope and love of so many, we kept going and going and going, keeping you alive, speaking your name from every outlet, pushing any hint of despair, not stopping to breathe or to take in the deep pain of your absence.” 

“Now things are clear,” she said to the reported 1,500 attendees at the service. “But not as we’d hoped.”

Onra and Ronen have described their son as loving, a good friend and an athlete, but they also highlighted his ability to lead and how his actions on Oct. 7, 2023 saved lives. 

Omer’s body is believed to still be held by Hamas along with the six other American hostages, only three of whom are still assessed by the IDF to be alive at this time, including Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Keith Siegel.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s body was recovered after he, along with five others, were discovered to have been murdered by Hamas in the tunnels in Gaza in August.

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American Hostages

These are the American hostages who were taken by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023 and held in Gaza, only Hersh Goldberg-Polin (Left) has been returned to Israel after the IDF found him and other hostages killed by terrorists. Pictured next to Hersh is Itay Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Gadi Haggai and Judi Weinstein Haggai and Keith Siegel. (Fox News Photo)

There are still 100 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza following the recovery of Itai Svirski’s body on Wednesday, an Israeli hostage taken during the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7, 2023.

The IDF confirmed he “was murdered in captivity by his captors, and his body was held hostage in the Gaza Strip.”

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US searching for journalist Tice in Syria prisons, White House says

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US searching for journalist Tice in Syria prisons, White House says
WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) – U.S. officials are communicating with people in Syria to seek information about Austin Tice, an American journalist captured there more than 12 years ago, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.

“This is a top priority for us – to find Austin Tice, to locate the prison where he may be held, get him out, get him home safely to his family,” Sullivan said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“”We are talking through the Turks and others to people on the ground in Syria to say, ‘Help us with this. Help us get Austin Tice home.’”

Tice, a former U.S. Marine and a freelance journalist, was 31 when he was abducted in August 2012 while reporting in Damascus on the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted by Syrian rebels who seized the capital Damascus on Sunday. Syria had denied he was being held.

Assad fled to Russia after a 13-year civil war and six decades of his family’s autocratic rule.

President Joe Biden said on Sunday the U.S. government believes Tice is alive.

“We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence to that yet. And Assad should be held accountable,” Biden said. “We have to identify where he is.”

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Tice’s parents said on Monday they were watching families reunited in Syria and know that will be possible for them as well.

“Austin Tice is alive, in Syria, and it’s time for him to come home. We are eagerly anticipating seeing Austin walk free and we are asking anyone who can do so to please assist Austin so he can safely return home to our family,” Marc and Debra Tice said in a statement.

Sullivan met with Debra Tice on Friday at the White House after she told journalists at the National Press Club that she believed her son was alive.

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Reporting by Doina Chiacu, additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Heather Timmons, Timothy Heritage and Rod Nickel

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New Taliban decree bans women from medical training: 'devastating decision'

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New Taliban decree bans women from medical training: 'devastating decision'

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The Taliban has reportedly banned women in Afghanistan from attending nursing and midwifery classes in yet another blow to women’s rights since the Taliban takeover. The latest directive closes one of the last remaining avenues women had to get an education.

“This devastating decision has crushed the hopes of hundreds of women who aspired to pursue an education and serve their communities,” Manizha Bakhtari, ambassador and permanent representative of Afghanistan in Austria, told Fox News Digital.

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Afghan nurses hold a newborn boy after delivery in the maternity ward of a hospital as he was born on the auspicious “12.12.12” date in Mazar-i-Sharif on Dec. 12, 2012.

Human Rights Watch noted that the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, issued the decree and it was communicated by the Taliban’s Ministry of Public Health during a meeting with private medical institutions.

ON 9/11 ANNIVERSARY AFGHAN OPPOSITION LEADER WARNS COUNTRY ONCE AGAIN A ‘SAFE HAVEN FOR TERRORISTS’

The latest decree follows earlier bans from the Taliban on secondary education for girls and universities for women, extinguishing the last glimmer of hope for Afghanistan’s young women. 

Ambassador Bakhtari, who is also Afghanistan’s representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said the ban is not only a gross violation of human rights, but is also a grave setback for Afghanistan’s development. 

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“Preventing women from participating in essential professions will lead to higher maternal and neonatal mortality rates, undermining the country’s health system and progress,” the ambassador said.

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Taliban security personnel stand guard as an Afghan burqa-clad woman walks along a street at a market in the Baharak district of Badakhshan province on Feb. 26, 2024. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

Women who were attending courses to study nursing and midwifery were ordered not to attend classes any longer. Nursing and midwifery provided women with one of the last opportunities to have a profession that was exempt from bans the Taliban implemented on women’s employment after taking power in 2021. 

U.N. Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett said in a post on X that the “inexplicable and unjustifiable” announcement will have a devastating impact on the entire population if implemented and must be reversed.

3 YEARS AFTER US WITHDRAWAL, AFGHAN RESISTANCE STILL IGNORED BY US, WEST

Access to health care and a lack of adequate services has left Afghanistan’s population vulnerable to disease and even routine illnesses that could be treated with basic medical services. Preventing women from studying at medical institutions harms Afghanistan’s entire population, which is desperately in need of health care workers.

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Rural areas will be the hardest hit by the Taliban’s latest ban, where cultural norms prevent male doctors from treating female patients. 

A girl reads a book in her classroom on the first day of the new school year, in Kabul, Saturday, March 25, 2023. Afghanistan’s schools open Wednesday for the new educational year, while thousands of schoolgirls remain barred from attending classes for the third year as the Taliban banned girls from school beyond sixth grade.

A girl reads a book in her classroom on the first day of the new school year, in Kabul, Saturday, March 25, 2023. Afghanistan’s schools open Wednesday for the new educational year, while thousands of schoolgirls remain barred from attending classes for the third year as the Taliban banned girls from school beyond sixth grade. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

Afghanistan has one of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world and is one of the most dangerous places on Earth to give birth. According to the World Bank, 620 women die per 100,000 live births due to pregnancy-related causes. The World Health Organization estimated in 2020 that 24 women die every day during childbirth or pregnancy.

Afghanistan women with backpacks

Girls walk to their school along a road in Gardez, Paktia province on Sept. 8, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)

The ban on medical training for women will likely compound Afghanistan’s growing humanitarian crisis that has only worsened since the Taliban came to power and the international community dramatically reduced its financial support over objections to the Taliban’s oppressive policies toward women.

WITH TALIBAN VICTORY, AFGHANISTAN COULD BECOME THE ‘SECOND SCHOOL OF JIHADISM’

More than 23 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023, according to the U.N. The world body also reported that 4 million Afghans were malnourished, including 3.2 million children under the age of 5.

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Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where women and girls are banned from secondary and higher education as well as many sectors of the economy and government, according to Human Rights Watch. 

The Taliban have reneged on all of their promises they made following their takeover of Kabul to respect the rights of women. In September 2021, shortly after overthrowing the U.S.-backed Afghan Republic, the Taliban barred young girls from attending secondary school after the sixth grade and then banned women from attending higher education in December 2022.

The U.N. and international nongovernmental organizations have urged the Taliban to repeal the directive as well as their other repressive policies toward women.

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Polish EU presidency to focus on energy, defence and economic security

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Polish EU presidency to focus on energy, defence and economic security

With Trump’s arrival in the US White House, a new EU Commission and the ongoing war in Ukraine, security in all its possible dimensions will be the main priority of the next rotating EU presidency, said Poland’s Ambassador Agnieszka Bartol.

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Energy, defence and economic security will top the EU’s agenda during the upcoming six-month rotating presidency of the Council, representing member states, which starts in January 2025, Poland’s Ambassador Agnieszka Bartol said on Monday.   

Bartol presented a “very ambitious” agenda to bring some stability in times of great change and challenges, with Trump’s arrival in the US White House, a new EU Commission and the ongoing war in Ukraine.   

“What do people want? What do people look for? They look for security, and that will be the biggest motive of the presidency, security in all its possible dimensions,” the Polish ambassador told the audience at an event organised by the Brussels-based think-tank European Policy Centre (EPC).    

Warsaw’s presidency aims to work on seven different dimensions of security, ranging from external and internal security to competitiveness, food quality, critical medicines and affordable energy prices.  

With regard to the latter, the Polish presidency intends to analyse how to reduce costs for businesses and citizens, with a clear focus on ensuring security of supply and energy diversification and independence.   

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On internal and external security, the Council is expected to make progress on protecting Europe’s borders, on cybersecurity, on combating foreign interference and disinformation, and on boosting the bloc’s defence industry.  

Mario Draghi’s landmark report on competitiveness estimated that the EU needs to mobilise an extra €500bn for defence over the next decade to keep pace with competitors such as the US and China.  

European defence spending reached a record €279bn in 2023, but estimates show that more money will be needed to plug funding gaps and invest in new projects such as the European air defence shield after years of underinvestment.   

“The mindset (at EU level) has been fundamentally changed,” Bartol said, adding that now “we are talking about new financing for defence, which was taboo a few years ago, and we are talking about innovative (financing) instruments, which was also taboo”.  

The Polish ambassador did not mention any specific financing instruments, as discussions on whether to issue joint debt for defence purposes – so-called Eurobonds – remain a sensitive issue for member states such as Germany and the Netherlands. 

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But the EU will need to explore new funding avenues outside the common budget, Bartol said, ideally based on the forthcoming White Paper on Defence, to be presented during Commissioner Kubilius’ first three months in office.   

The funds earmarked for defence in the 2021-27 EU budget amount to around €10 billion, and the next long-term EU budget, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), will not kick in until 2028, with payments starting a year later at best.   

Bartol argued that the EU budget, despite its crucial importance, cannot be the main tool for boosting Europe’s defence capabilities.    

“Putin will not wait for the MFF and the world will not wait for the MFF,” she concluded. 

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