Omer Neutra's absence is marked by a dog tag around his father's neck, which explains in Hebrew that his heart is in Gaza. It can be seen in his face on his father's T-shirt or in the photo taped to an empty chair at the holiday table.
Her son's absence forces the mother to engage in daily inner conversations with her missing son and plans for a new apartment where she will wait for her son to rebuild his life. It flickers in the candle his parents lit on his 22nd birthday and watched it blaze into chocolate frosting.
Three months fueled Ronen and Orna Neutra's all-out mission to free their son, who grew up on Long Island and dropped out of college to spend a year in Israel. As a result, his son enlisted in the Israeli army on October 7, until his capture by Hamas.
With more than 130 remaining hostages in captivity reaching three months, the couple says their son is running out of time as negotiations fail and the danger to the hostages increases with each passing week. he said.
"It's very scary. And it's frustrating," said her mother, Orna Neutra.
Omer Neutra is traveling to Cannes, France.
The prospect of a negotiated agreement that could return hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners is caught between Hamas' demands for a complete ceasefire and Israel's goal of expelling the group from Gaza. Experts said there is.
Egypt proposed a multi-stage peace plan that included an exchange and an eventual end to the war. However, recent events such as the assassination of a Hamas leader in Beirut have complicated negotiations. Nutras is now asking each hostage to make a deal as soon as possible, rather than a limited exchange.