With the confirmation that American-Israeli citizen Omer Neutra, who was believed to be held alive in Gaza, was actually killed on October 7 of last year, President-elect Trump is pledging that there will be “ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East” should the hostages remain in captivity by his inauguration in January. 

Trump responded to the news of Neutra’s death in a post on Truth Social on Monday, directly threatening to “hit” those responsible “harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America.” He signed off his post by calling for Hamas to “RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW.”

Omer Neutra, a lone soldier from New York, served as a tank platoon commander in the 77th Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade, and was stationed on the Gaza border near Nahal Oz during the October 7 attack. Though two of Neutra’s former tankmates were killed during the onslaught, it was previously believed that the Long Island native was brought into Gaza alive. On Monday, however, Israel’s Defense Forces, citing new evidence, announced that Neutra was killed during the attack. 

Neutra, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, grew up at Plainview, Long Island, and attended a Jewish high school there. He later chose to defer his enrollment at SUNY Binghamton to enlist in the IDF, citing his love for Israel. On Monday, Governor Hochul ordered flags to half-staff statewide in his honor, describing the news of his death as shaking “all New Yorkers to our core.” 

His killing will place additional pressure on the president-elect to broker a hostage deal even before he takes office. Just this weekend, Hamas released a propaganda video of Israeli-American hostage, 20-year-old Edan Alexander, who was shown calling on Trump to negotiate a deal for the remaining hostages held in Gaza. In the video, which was posted by Hamas on Telegram under the title “time is running out,” the visibly distressed hostage pleads for Trump to “please use your influence and the full power of the U.S. to negotiate for our freedom” lest he end up like fellow American hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered in captivity in August, he added. 

After the video’s release, Mr. Alexander’s parents, Adi and Yael Alexander, released a statement urging President Biden to work with Trump to negotiate a hostage deal, calling for Trump not to “wait until he is inaugurated to help reach a deal that secures the freedom for Edan, six other Americans, and the rest of the hostages,” they stated. 

Adi Alexander told the Jerusalem Post that Trump’s team, during a phone call on Saturday, assured him and his wife that they were “shoulder-to-shoulder with the current administration to resolve the issue” and were working around the clock to broker a deal. The phone call marked their first correspondence with Trump since he was elected president. 

Just hours before the IDF released the news that Neutra was killed, his parents, Ronen and Orna Neutra, made a similar plea to the president-elect while gathering in Central Park on Sunday for their weekly rally to advocate for the release of the hostages in Gaza. 

The couple told CNN over Thanksgiving that “the hostages don’t have time to wait until Inauguration Day” and called on the “two presidents” — Mr. Biden and Trump — to “work together.” Ronen Neutra, Omer’s father, expressed hope to CNN that Trump would “seize the moment and reach what we are calling a Reagan moment” — referencing when Tehran released American hostages during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis shortly after President Reagan was sworn into office. 

Neutra’s father expressed his confidence in Trump’s negotiating abilities over the weekend, telling the Jerusalem Post that “He’s a deal maker. He’s done it before.”

Neutra’s family has tirelessly advocated on his behalf, even taking the stage of the Republican National Convention to call for their son, and all the hostages, to be brought home. 

The Neutra family, along with the Alexanders and the families of the five other Americans held hostage in Gaza, will join National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan for one of his regular calls with the president this week. With Israel’s recent ceasefire deal with Lebanon, the administration is seeing a “newfound opportunity” for a hostage deal, Mr. Sullivan said on Wednesday. 

During Hamas’s October 7 attack, the terrorist group took more than 250 individuals hostage, including 12 Americans. An estimated 97 hostages are still in Gaza, including seven American citizens. Only three of the Americans are believed to be alive.