The niece and a childhood friend of American-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra, who was taken captive on October 7, were inspired to follow in his footsteps and join his pre-army training camp in northern Israel.

Neutra turned 23 on October 14, marking the second birthday which he has spent in captivity since being kidnapped last year while serving as a tank commander on the Gaza border.

Omer Neutra immigrated to Israel from the United States and enlisted in the IDF

Neutra, who was born in Manhattan and grew up on Long Island, was set to attend college at Binghamton University but decided to make aliyah and join the IDF as a lone soldier after taking a gap year in Israel.

His childhood friend, Maya Chen, and his niece, Amit Bueno, both 18, are following in his footsteps and have enrolled themselves at the Upper Galilee Leadership Academy — the same pre-military training camp which inspired Neutra to leave the US permanently and join the IDF.

Omer Neutra was captain of his volleyball and basketball teams at the Schechter School of Long Island

“It’s crazy, because I’m at the exact same place and experiencing all of the same things he experienced,” says Bueno, who began at the pre-military camp in August and is currently based at Kibbutz Kfar HaNassi in the Korazim Plateau. “I feel more connected to him because of that,” she said, adding how she is in disbelief that this is the second birthday Neutra has experienced as a hostage. “A whole year of his life — when he was 22 — was spent being kept by Hamas,” she said.

Bueno, who has lived in Israel for 16 years, admires Neutra for his selflessness in giving up on his comfortable life in the US to serve the Israeli army. “Omer decided to join the army and chose to sacrifice himself to protect the country, even though he didn’t have to,” she said.

Omer Neutra is one of four American hostages still thought to be alive in Gaza (Credit: Amit Bueno)

But, she says, it is the Israeli government’s turn to fulfil its end of the deal and rescue him. “Now when it’s the country’s time to protect him and bring him home, they don’t do it. He chose to sacrifice himself and now when it’s the government’s time to do its part, it doesn’t do it. He came to fight for the country, and now he’s abandoned.”

Chen, who grew up with Neutra on Long Island and calls him her “older brother”, was also motivated to join the pre-military camp because of her friend. She recalls her last phone call with Neutra, four days before October 7, when he told her about all his positive experiences in the pre-military academy and gave her advice on applying herself.

“Literally just four days before he was taken captive we spoke on the phone when I was in New York and he was in Israel,” she said. “It’s just crazy, because I didn't know that would be the last time for a long time that like would talk, so I never said goodbye.”

She said Neutra’s parents, Ronen and Orna, spoke to their son the day before October 7. “It was very routine for them to call, and just say ‘I love you’, and then on the morning after everything broke out, they tried to call him but he didn't answer,” Chen said.

On October 7, the soldiers of the 77th Battalion were stationed at an outpost on the Gaza border, between Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbutz Nirim. When Hamas attacked, Neutra was serving as tank commander in a unit of four, with Nimrod Cohen, Oz Daniel and Shaked Dahan.

While heading north, Neutra’s tank was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades, and it caught on fire. At the same time, an explosive device which had been attached to the vehicle detonated. Dahan and Daniel, both 19, were abducted and killed by terrorists, while Neutra and tank gunner Cohen, 20, from Rehovot, are still being held hostage in Gaza.

Omer Neutra and Sgt. Oz Daniel, 19, who was killed and abducted by Hamas on October 7 (Credit: Amit Bueno)

Video footage of the attack on the tank crew was released to Israeli media in August, showing Hamas terrorists rejoicing on its rooftop. Describing the clip of Neutra’s last moments before disappearing into Gaza, Chen said: “Omer is laying on the floor, near where the tank is, and there's terrorists on the top of the tank, recording it and screaming things in Arabic.

“Omer is laying on the ground and that's the last thing that we know. We don't know if he's hurt. We don't know what happened to him, but that's the last thing that we've seen.”

Describing how it felt watching Hamas rejoice in the attack, she said it was “disgusting”. “In almost every video from October 7, they are actively celebrating the innocent lives lost, the innocent lives tortured, harmed, actively celebrating. It's disgusting.”

Palestinians take control of an Israeli Merkava battle tank after crossing the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023 (Getty Images)

Several Israeli media outlets have reported that Neutra’s tank suffered from a mechanical malfunction on October 7, causing the vehicle to slow down and allowing the terrorists to attach explosives. “Their tank wasn't working a hundred per cent, which is a problem of the Israeli government,” Chen said. “They're driving, and there were terrorists behind them, and because the tank was driving so slowly, it wasn't able to escape, and the terrorists were able to put a bomb on the tracks of the tank and the tank started to explode,” she said.

“It's really shocking that he's still there. And it's not even just shocking, it’s anxiety provoking. I don't think anybody is physically able to understand what it's like for them, and of course I'm not either. It's just the unknown of like, ‘What is he doing? Who is he with? Is he eating?’

“I can't even express the doubt, the anxiety, and even the guilt that I feel being here and him being there after a whole year,” she said.

Chen was originally carrying out her pre-military training in Mayan Baruch, but her camp has since moved location to the safer location of Afikim, which is further away from the northern border that has been consistently attacked by Hezbollah since October 8.

Afikim, she says, is where Neutra was based during his Garin Tzabar programme, reminding her all of time of her childhood friend. “We have these couches that we sit on every day, it's like our hangout spot, and there's pictures of Omer on those couches with the same cats that run around the mechina,” she said.

“Omer is just like me, just a little bit older. And it's just crazy that something like that happened to him.” She says she feels guilty living her life, knowing what conditions he’s in. “Why do I get to just live my life and be here, and why does he have to suffer for absolutely no reason?”

Both Bueno and Chen recall fond memories of the talented and funny Neutra. He was captain of the volleyball and basketball teams at the Schechter School of Long Island, a private Jewish school, and was president of the United Synagogue Youth (USY) group’s Metro New York chapter.

“As a family, they always said that even know Omer was born in New York City, from the day he was born he was the most Israeli person,” said Bueno about her cousin. “He’s very connected to his Israeli roots.”

Chen, who grew up going on family trips with to Belize, St Lucia and Mexico, called him an “all around amazing person that literally everybody wants to be around”.

To commemorate the anniversary of October 7, both Chen and Bueno helped to organise events at the Upper Galilee Leadership Academy.

At Kibbutz Kfar HaNassi, Bueno distributed T-shirts printed with the number 24 — matching the jersey of Neutra’s favourite basketball player, Kobe Bryant — and handed out yellow wristbands printed with the phrases “our heart breaks in two pieces” and “we’ll wait for you” from Neutra’s favourite song, ‘Halel Sheli’. Speaking to her class, Chen read out a letter she wrote for Neutra a year ago when he was first taken captive, telling him how much she missed him.

Wristbands printed with lyrics from Omer Neutra's favourite song produced by his cousin Amit Bueno (Credit: Amit Bueno)

Neutra’s parents, Ronen and Orna, have been campaigning fiercely ever since their son was kidnapped into Gaza, travelling around the world and appearing frequently in Israel and Washington to meet with politicians. They recently spoke at a march calling for the release of the hostages on October 13 in Central Park, and made a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual convention in September, urging political leaders to reach a deal that will release the remaining captives. Of those abducted on October 7 who remain in Gaza, around 60 are still alive, according to Israeli authorities, while 35 are believed to be dead.

Orna Neutra speaks to the press after a meeting of relatives of hostages with US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 25, 2024 (Getty Images)

Twelve people with US citizenship were abducted by Hamas on October 7. Four of them are thought to be still alive in Gaza: Edan Alexander, 20; Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36; Keith Siegel, 65; and Neutra.  

At the Upper Galilee Leadership Academy, Chen and her fellow students are working with youths who were displaced following October 7, and rebuilding houses that were broken into at Kfar Aza, a kibbutz around three kilometres from the border with Gaza which was devastated when 70 Hamas militants invaded and massacred 62 of its inhabitants.

Before her training camp was safely relocated further away from the border with Lebanon, Chen’s daily life in the north was defined by constant warning sirens and the sounds of shelling and missiles.

“And as an American, it was crazy coming here and seeing how the class would shake from a rocket exploding in the air because of the Iron Dome. There was one night this year when there were so many rockets that my room literally shook,” she said. But life goes on amid war. She’ll still go out to eat at a restaurant tonight and live her life as normally as possible, “because you can't just stop living for a year”, she said.

Every day, Chen, Bueno and the rest of Neutra’s family wait and hope anxiously for his safe return to Israel. “Hostages are people,” Chen said. “They're not names, they're not numbers and they're not just a civilian or just a soldier. “It is so urgent to bring them home and for Israel to have support coming from the international community.”