Parents of American held captive in Gaza hope Biden and Trump will work together on hostage deal
CNN
Ronen and Orna Neutra are gathering this Thanksgiving with friends in Long Island, New York, for a moment of quiet reflection as their son Omer, an Israeli-American citizen, continues to be held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.
Ronen and Orna Neutra are gathering this Thanksgiving with friends in Long Island, New York, for a moment of quiet reflection as their son Omer, an Israeli-American citizen, continues to be held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. “For us, it’s no holiday. Our holiday table is empty a second year in a row. Omer is not there,” Ronen Neutra said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday. “We are hoping this is the last year that we are in this situation.” After the US helped secure a ceasefire this week between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Neutras expressed hope the development could serve as a “time to refocus” on securing the release of their son and the other Israeli-American hostages remaining in Gaza. They said President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump each have their own strengths and should jointly work to secure a hostage deal. “We have two presidents. We’re calling on them to work together,” Orna Neutra said. “The hostages don’t have time to wait until Inauguration Day.” While they welcomed the ceasefire deal in Lebanon, the couple expressed some frustration that the agreement was not coupled with the release of the hostages in Gaza. “We have seen that attention both in Israel and around the world was taken from the war in Gaza to the war in Lebanon in the last four or five months, and that was a concern to us,” Ronen Neutra said. “But at the same time, we are disappointed that it was not combined with a hostage deal, which is really the most urgent element right now. We consider it a missed opportunity.”
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