Flanked by the First Lady, President Joe Biden bowed his head as a rabbi chanted a Hebrew prayer for the departed in the White House on Monday.
The somber ceremony marked one year since Hamas terrorists stormed across Israel’s border and carried out the deadliest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust.
President Biden left Monday’s event without uttering a word, but his administration did release a statement.
It recognized that 46 American citizens were among the 1,200 innocent people murdered by Hamas that day — and that another 12 were taken hostage.
As of October 7, 2024, four Americans are still believed to be held inside Gaza by the terrorists.
Three more US citizen hostages are presumed dead. Their bodies have not yet been recovered.
These are the stories of the missing.
Omer Neutra, 22
Omer Neutra’s parents, Orna and Ronen, moved from Israel to the U.S. in 1999. He was born in New York City, making him a dual American-Israeli citizen.
Growing up in the Long Island, New York halmet of Plainview, Omer was captain of his high school volleyball, soccer and basketball teams – and became a passionate fan of the NBA’s New York Knicks.
After high school graduation and before attending New York’s Binghamton University, he decided to spend a gap year in Israel.
But after the COVID pandemic forced him to return home in 2020, he told his parents that wanted to stay and enlist in the Israeli army.
On October 7, Omer, now 22, was serving as a tank commander at a base near the Gaza Strip, when he was taken hostage. Grainy footage purportedly recorded that day shows him being pulled out of a tank by Hamas gunmen.
Neutra’s parents have recounted how they spoke to their son about his upcoming birthday just hours before his capture.
Now, a year later, his father asks how and if he’ll ever come home. ‘Is it in body bags? Is it in three years?’ Ronen Neutra said last week.
Edan Alexander, 20
Edan Alexander, 20, grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey across the Hudson River from New York City.
His parents moved to the US from Israel when he was an infant. He grew up speaking Hebrew at home and travelled every summer to Israel to visit family.
Otherwise, he was a typical American kid; a Knicks fan and a champion swimmer for his high school team.
Edan’s parents said they were surprised when he told them during his senior year of high school that he wanted to postpone college to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces – but they supported him.
In Israel, he was assigned to a small outpost on the Gaza border. Edan, then 19, was on patrol in a kibbutz on October 7 when he was captured.
He called his mother, Yael, just after the attacks started.
‘I told him at the end of the call: “Listen to me, Edan. I’m here. I’m with you. I love you. Just protect yourself. Just be safe,” she said. ‘And that’s it, we hang up. I didn’t know I’m not gonna hear from him again.’
Five days later, Edan parent’s were informed that he’d been kidnapped.
Israeli hostages released by Hamas have said that they saw Edan in the tunnels under Gaza.
Keith Siegel, 65
Keith Siegel, 65, moved to Israel from Chapel Hill, North Carolina 40 years ago.
There he met and fell in love with his wife Aviva, a kindergarten teacher from South Africa.
They lived in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, close to the Gaza border, where Keith worked as an occupational therapist.
They had four children together and are now devoted grandparents to five.
Keith and Aviva were home when they were taken hostage on October 7 and taken into Gaza, along with their neighbor and her two children.
They were kept in tunnels and apartments and moved constantly, until Aviva was released on November 26 in a deal that saw more than 100 women, children and non-Israeli citizens returned to Israel.
Now Aviva is extremely worried about Keith’s health. She said his ribs were broken when they were captured and he had a bullet wound in his hand.
In April, Hamas released a video of Keith in captivity, but Aviva cannot bring herself to watch it.
Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36
Sagui Dekel-Chen spent his 36th birthday in captivity in Gaza on August 11.
He was working at his machine shop 200 yards from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 when Hamas terrorists entered the town.
Sagui managed to warn his neighbors by text message and then fled with his pregnant wife Avital and their two young daughters to a bomb shelter.
Then, he went to confront the terrorists.
Sagui is the grandson of Holocaust survivors.
His parents were raised in the US but moved to Israel where he was born. In 1997, they returned to the US and lived in the Boston area, where he completed high school.
He and his wife moved back to Israel when he was hired by a charity to be their project coordinator there.
It is believed that Sagui was captured while attempting to defend his home.
In December, Avital gave birth to their third daughter.
PRESUMED DEAD
Itay Chen, 19
Itay Chen, 19, grew up in the Israeli city of Netanya, but his family would often return to his birthplace, New York City.
He is the second of three sons, a former Boy Scout and basketball player, who loves hiking and music.
He was serving on the Gaza border on October 7 when, according to the IDF, he was killed by Hamas terrorists, who took his body into Gaza.
Itay’s family, however, refuses to believe that he is gone.
‘With so much misinformation swirling around this conflict, we still don’t know what to believe. We question whether or not he survived. We are holding out hope that Itay is still alive,’ wrote his parents Ruby and Hagit Chen in an October 7, 2024 article for MSNBC.
They have said that they expect the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Biden to do ‘everything in their power’ to bring their son home.
Judith Weinstein, 70, and Gadi Haggai, 73
Judith Weinstein, 70, is an upstate New York native who moved to Israel 30 years ago.
Her husband Gadi Haggai, 73, is an Israeli-American retired chef and jazz musician.
She taught English to children with special needs and helped counsel young people who suffered from anxiety and depression.
The pair were on their daily morning walk in Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza border when they were ambushed by Hamas militants.
It is believed that both Gadi and Judith were shot and there are conflicting reports as to where they died before their bodies were taken into Gaza.
Gadi and Judith have four children and seven grandchildren.
In December 2023, Judith’s 95-year-old mother said, ‘I am very afraid and worried. I want to know if Judy is alive and if she is being held hostage. It is unbearable not to know.’