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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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#OneChicago Confirms First Three-Show Crossover Event in Five Years — Get Airdate, Scoop and More

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#OneChicago Confirms First Three-Show Crossover Event in Five Years — Get Airdate, Scoop and More


Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Chicago Med Plot 2025 Crossover Event



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Turkey’s Erdogan encourages Islamist rebels to continue advances as Assad regime scrambles to survive

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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.

ISLAMIST REBELS IN SYRIA CATCH ASSAD, PUTIN, IRAN REGIMES OFF GUARD GIVING US NEW MIDEAST HEADACHE

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Rebels in northwest Syria seized military vehicles belonging to the regime along the route toward Kweris Airport in the eastern countryside of Aleppo on Dec. 2, 2024. (Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto via APRami Alsayed/NurPhoto via AP)

“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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SOHR reported on Friday that HTS and its allies are a mere one kilometer from the military academy in Homs.

The military training facility in Homs is the largest in the war-torn country.

RUSSIA AND SYRIA BOMB SYRIAN ISLAMIST REBELS AFTER SURPRISE INCURSION

The stunning progress of HTS and its coalition partners in their rapid-fire seizure of Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, last week and now Hama has upended an already volatile Middle East.  A number of countries within the Fertile Crescent region—Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq—are immersed in wars and conflicts spanning various levels of intensity.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Friday that it is “reinforcing aerial and ground forces in the Golan Heights area” that borders Syria.” IDF troops are deployed along the border, monitoring developments and are prepared for all scenarios, offensive and defensive alike. The statement added that, “The IDF will not tolerate threats near the Israeli border and will thwart any threat against the State of Israel.”

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The IDF announced it was reinforcing its border with Syria on the Golan Heights following developments in Syria.

The IDF announced it was reinforcing its border with Syria on the Golan Heights following developments in Syria. (IDF Spokesman’s Unit.)

Another neighboring country, Jordan, reportedly closed its Jabber crossing with Syria as rebel troops closed in on those areas.

Emad Bouzo, a Syrian American physician and a veteran political commentator on Syria, told Fox News Digital, “The images now leaking from Homs are entirely similar to those that came out of Hama hours before its liberation, especially in terms of the large convoys of cars leaving the city, the low morale of the regime’s army, and the demographic composition of the villages and towns separating Homs and Hama, which have long history of opposing the regime. Therefore, it is difficult to predict what will happen in the coming hours and days, although the military balance currently tilts in favor of the Syrian opposition.”

An anti-government fighter covers his ears as a multi-barrel rocket launcher fires against regime forces in the northern outskirts of Syria's west-central city of Hama on Dec. 4, 2024.

An anti-government fighter covers his ears as a multi-barrel rocket launcher fires against regime forces in the northern outskirts of Syria’s west-central city of Hama on Dec. 4, 2024. (Bakr al Kassem/AFP via Getty Images)

He continued, “The most likely expectation seems to be that Russia will do what it can to prevent the city from falling to the opposition, and if it cannot do so militarily, it will do what it can to pressure Turkey for a cease-fire so that the regime can catch its breath.”

The expected battle of Homs is a high profile military campaign for the HTS. It will pit the U.S.-classified sponsors of terrorism, Iran’s regime and its ally Hezbollah, against the HTS coalition. 

The U.S. also considers Syria’s regime a state-sponsor of terrorism.

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Bouzo said Homs is the “the main transportation hub for Iranian militias.” He noted that Hezbollah controls entire areas, like Talbisehm a town in the Homs province. 

“Homs is also a corridor for the Syrian regime to the Syrian coast, where Russian military bases are concentrated. It also forms the human reservoir for the Alawite sect, on which the Assad family’s rule relies, alongside the Syrian capital, Damascus. Hence, it is expected that the regime, Hezbollah, and Russia will do everything they can to keep this city under their control.”

‘WAR FOLLOWED US’: A SYRIAN FAMILY FLED BEIRUT AFTER ISRAELI BOMBARDMENT TO FACE REPRESSION, BOMBING AT HOME

A picture taken at the entrance of the Kweyris military airfield in the eastern part of Aleppo province on Dec. 3, 2024 shows a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a national flag in the garbage dumpster following the take-over of the area by rebel groups.

A picture taken at the entrance of the Kweyris military airfield in the eastern part of Aleppo province on Dec. 3, 2024 shows a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a national flag in the garbage dumpster following the take-over of the area by rebel groups. (Photo by RAMI AL SAYED/AFP via Getty Images)

The power politics of Syria largely pits two Islamist Mideast nations against each other: the Sunni Turkey government versus the Shiite Islamic Republic of Iran. Tehran has backed Assad’s regime since he launched a massive violent crackdown on the growing pro-democracy Syrian movement in 2011.

Former Israeli Ambassador to Jordan Jacob Rosen, who has expertise in Syria’s complex demographics, told Fox News Digital that Iran and Turkey “are the big players who are ex-empires who want to go back to the glory” of their rule over large swathes of the Mideast.”

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“If Turkey controls Syria, it can encircle the Kurds,” said Rosen, a fluent Arabic speaker. Turkey has launched attacks over the years against pro-U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish forces in northern Syria.

Rosen views Erdogan’s embrace of the HTS offensive on Friday as a warning from Turkey to Iran’s regime. “Don’t do stupid things,” is the message Erdogan is sending Tehran, noted Rosen.

The big question for the U.S., the European Union and Israel is, “Who is going to save Assad?”, Rosen asked.

Russia, the Lebanese terrorist movement, Hezbollah and Iran previously rescued Assad from defeat. However, Russia is consumed with a protracted war in Ukraine. 

Rosen said the re-kindled Syrian revolt against Assad has spread to the southern Syrian province of Daraa—the birthplace of the 2011 revolt. He termed the fast-moving events in Darra as “mini-rebellions” and said some Syrian regime forces defected.

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NEARLY 30,000 CHILDREN ARE SUFFERING HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN SYRIA, UN-BACKED COMMISSION SAYS

Fighters enter the Rashidin district on the outskirts of Aleppo on their motorbikes with smoke billowing in the background during fighting on November 29, 2024, as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists and allied factions continue their offensive in the Aleppo province against government forces. 

Fighters enter the Rashidin district on the outskirts of Aleppo on their motorbikes with smoke billowing in the background during fighting on November 29, 2024, as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists and allied factions continue their offensive in the Aleppo province against government forces.  (Photo by BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images)

The stakes are high in Syria and for the heartland of the Mideast. Rosen referenced the late British journalist, Patrick Seale, who authored books on Syria. “The hegemony of the Middle East depends on who will rule Syria,” said Rosen with respect to Seale’s core idea about the importance of Syria for the region.

Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the Islamist leader of HTS, who has a $10 million bounty on his head from the U.S., recently gave an interview to CNN, when he said, “The seeds of the regime’s defeat have always been within it… the Iranians attempted to revive the regime, buying it time, and later the Russians also tried to prop it up. But the truth remains: this regime is dead.”

Rosen summarized al-Golani’s interview as “He wants to appeal to the West. The former ambassador added al-Golani “knows everyone in Syria is not Islamist. For the time being, he is playing it very moderate.”

Bouzo said the media’s focus “on the idea that the opposition fighting the regime are Islamic does not change the fact that the other side is also Islamic militias, but Shiite ones supported by both Iran under [Ali] Khamenei and Russia under [Vladimir] Putin. The Syrian regime itself is accused of committing war crimes against its own people, including the use of chemical weapons.”

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The United States has some 900 troops in Syria as part of a coalition effort to defeat the Islamic State terrorist movement. The U.S. government said it is not involved in the Syrian civil war.

With a view toward the future of Syria, Bouzo said “The truth is that the recent events give the United States, under its new incoming administration, an opportunity to break the deadlock on the Syrian file by pressuring all parties to push toward implementing a political solution through Resolution 2254 and forming a transitional governing body to manage this country, which has suffered enough in the past years.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Why is the opposition capture of Hama in Syria so important?

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Why is the opposition capture of Hama in Syria so important?

Opposition fighters in Syria captured the strategic city of Hama on Thursday in a matter of hours.

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which means the Committee for the Liberation of the Levant, led the offensive as they stormed the city. Government forces quickly retreated.

Inhabitants appeared to welcome what many described as the liberation of their city from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s clutches.

One HTS fighter, who did not want to give his name, told Al Jazeera after entering Hama: “Thank God we liberated the city of Hama and now we are securing [it]. With God’s blessing, we will enter the city of Homs next.”

Analysts and observers believe antigovernment fighters could capture most of the country, but say Hama has a particular value for the Syrian opposition.

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This is what we know about the strategic and symbolic significance of the city.

Why is Hama so significant in Syria?

The city witnessed one of the most brutal acts of repression in Syrian history, analysts and observers say.

In 1982, al-Assad’s father, Hafez, who was then president, ordered the killing of members of the Muslim Brotherhood who were occupying the city.

The targeted people were part of a movement trying to remove the al-Assads from power and had taken over the city after ambushing army troops.

They killed senior officers and leaders within the government and looted their homes, according to a report by the European Council for Foreign Relations, a think tank based in the United Kingdom.

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The group’s operations attracted widespread support and triggered an uprising against the government in the city.

The government responded by bombing Hama for several days while Syrian troops moved in to crush the uprising.

Syrian opposition fighters standing on a mat bearing drawings of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his late father Hafez [AFP]

In the following weeks, Syrian forces laid siege to the city, going door to door to kill, torture and arrest any young men they believed to be with the opposition, according to Amnesty International.

It is estimated that between 10,000 and 40,000 people were killed in Hama – the precise figure is still unknown.

“It was the awareness of the mass arrests and executions that terrified people,” said Robin Yassin-Kassab, an expert on Syria and the co-author of, Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War.

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“[The episode] made Syria a kingdom of silence,” he told Al Jazeera.

The 2011 Syrian uprising momentarily shattered that barrier of fear.

As protests swept the country, inhabitants of Hama gathered and sang “Yalla erhal ya Bashar,” which translates to “Come on and leave, Bashar!”

Protesters in Hama carried olive branches and crowds reached more than 500,000 people, activists told Al Jazeera in 2011.

What did the Syrian regime do to Hama in 2011?

All across Syria, government forces violently repressed demonstrations in 2011, including in Hama.

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For more than a decade, the regime barrel-bombed cities and arrested and tortured activists and perceived opponents.

The government often relied on Alawi, as well as Shia, armed groups, both from Syria and across the region, to crack down on protesters.

The Alawi sect in Syria is an offshoot of Shia Islam to which al-Assad and his family belong.

Yassin-Kassab said many believe the barrier of fear has been shattered for a second time after rebel groups captured Aleppo and now Hama within days.

In Hama, scenes of prisoners of conscience being liberated from the central prison prompted celebrations by Syrians.

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In the city, inhabitants tore down a statue of Hafez al-Assad.

“I presumed Hama is where [the government and its loyalists] would put up a serious fight … but they weren’t capable,” said Yassin-Kassab.

“After Hama [was liberated], I thought to myself: ‘The Syrian revolution is back.’”

An abandoned Syrian army armoured vehicle sits on a field controlled by Syrian insurgents in the outskirts of Hama, Syria
An abandoned Syrian army armoured vehicle sits on a field controlled by Syrian opposition fighters in the outskirts of Hama, on December 3, 2024 [Ghaith Alsayed/AP]

Is Hama strategically important?

Very much so.

The capture of Hama allows rebel groups to keep moving down the Aleppo-Damascus M5 highway towards Homs, which if captured, could split apart the regime’s strongholds.

Opposition fighters appear to have reached the outskirts of the city, according to reports, while thousands of people have fled.

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Homs has a larger population of Alawis than Hama, but HTS has reportedly offered assurances that minorities in Syria will not be harmed.

The city is effectively a gateway to Syria’s capital, Damascus, as well as to the coastal provinces of Tartous and Latakia, which are Alawi heartlands and where Russian naval and air bases are located.

If Homs falls to the opposition, then opposition fighters are likely to push on to try to take Damascus, said Yassin-Kassab.

“I do think if Homs falls, then that will be the beginning of the end for the [Assad regime],” he told Al Jazeera.

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