World
Lawmakers hold moment of silence for slain Omer Neutra as thousands mourn in hometown synagogue
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.”
“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.
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.”
World
Georgians vow to continue pro-EU protests 'until victory'
Police have reportedly resorted to more heavy handed tactics in a bid to clamp down on the unrest with more than 400 protesters, including opposition leaders and activists, detained and more than 100 people treated for injuries.
Police in Georgia have used water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds as mass protests sparked by the government’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union continue for a ninth night.
Police have reportedly resorted to more heavy handed tactics in a bid to clamp down on the unrest with more than 400 protesters, including opposition leaders and activists, detained and more than 100 people treated for injuries.
One 22-year-old protester was placed in an induced coma after he was allegedly hit with a tear gas capsule.
In a post on X, Georgia’s pro-EU President Salome Zourabichvili condemned what she called “brutal terror and repression” and accused security forces of “gross violations of human rights”.
More than 50 journalists have also been injured in the protests so far.
The ruling Georgian Dream retained control of parliament in the disputed 26 October election, a vote widely seen as a referendum on Georgia’s EU aspirations.
The opposition have accused the governing party of rigging the vote with the help neighbouring Russia to keep the Moscow-friendly ruling Georgian Dream party in power.
But the protests against the election became angrier and spread beyond the capital Tbilisi after the Georgian Dream’s decision last Thursday to put EU accession talks on hold until at least 2028.
“Georgian citizens are in the streets defending Article 78 of the Constitution, which states that each governmental entity must support European integration. Angry citizens have taken to the streets. The force the regime is using against peaceful demonstrators closely resembles that of the Russian regime. Therefore, we are fighting against it,” said protester, Giorgi Natroshvili.
The decision to suspend accession talks was in response to a European Parliament resolution that criticised the elections as neither free nor fair.
It said the election represented another manifestation of Georgia’s continued democratic backsliding “for which the ruling Georgian Dream party is fully responsible.”
International observers say they saw instances of violence, bribery and double voting at the polls, prompting some EU lawmakers to demand a re-run.
“People continue coming because, day by day the government is becoming worse. They’re getting more and more violent and they’re shifting towards authoritarianism,” said protester, Luka Andguladze.
“So people believe that with our strong will, they will crumble, they will tire, the West will support us, and there will be a time when they will step aside and they will fulfil our request, which is new fair elections under fair laws.”
The EU granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that it meet the bloc’s recommendations, but Brussels put that process on hold earlier this year after the passage of a controversial ‘foreign influence’ law, which was widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms.
Critics have also accused Georgian Dream of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. The party recently pushed through laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.
World
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World
Turkey’s Erdogan encourages Islamist rebels to continue advances as Assad regime scrambles to survive
JERUSALEM — After Turkey-backed radical Islamist forces seized the pivotal Syrian city of Hama on Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cheered the astonishing military advance of his allies.
“I would say we hope for this advance to continue without any issues,” Erdogan said on Friday, according to a Reuters report.
He added that the capital city of Damascus, where Syrian dictator Bashar Assad resides, is the objective. “The target is Damascus.”
Erdogan continued, “However, while this resistance there with terrorist organizations is continuing, we had made a call to Assad,” referring to his approach to Assad earlier this year to meet and normalize ties after more than a decade of animosity.
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“These problematic advances continuing as a whole in the region are not in a manner we desire, our heart does not want these. Unfortunately, the region is in a bind,” he said, without elaborating.
Erdogan’s comment about terrorist entities within the ranks of the insurgency are an apparent reference to the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Islamist Al-Qaeda affiliate that is part of the rebel force.
Turkey is a member of the American-led NATO alliance. Turkey’s reported support of terrorist groups like Hamas and its purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems has triggered outrage among many U.S. lawmakers.
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which tracks the civil war in the fractured Syrian Arab Republic, HTS is now within striking distance of the pivotal crossroads city of Homs.
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