The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, visiting Israel, assured on Saturday, October 25, that efforts were continuing to repatriate the remains of the hostages, after a meeting with relatives of two Israeli-American soldiers included among the 13 dead captives still held in Gaza.
“We will not forget the lives of the hostages who died in captivity at the hands of Hamas. Today I met with the families of American citizens Itay Chen and Omer Neutra,” Marco Rubio wrote in a message on X.
“We will not relent in our efforts until his remains – and those of everyone else – are repatriated,” he added. He later spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.
The call, he said, focused on “our collective effort to implement President Trump’s comprehensive plan to end the conflict in Gaza” and “affirmed the strategic relationship between the United States and Israel.”
US officials in Israel this week
The main association fighting for the return of the hostages greeted Marc Rubio with a “thank you” in
On October 7, 2023, Sergeant Itay Chen, 19, was assigned to the border with the Gaza Strip when Hamas and its allies launched their attack, which sparked the war. The Israeli military announced his death in March 2024. Captain Omer Neutra, a volunteer in the Israeli armed forces, died on October 7 at the age of 21 in the attack on his tank on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The attackers pulled him out of the tank along with three other soldiers, according to videos published by Hamas. The head of US diplomacy was the latest in a series of senior US officials to visit Israel this week, following envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Vice President JD Vance, to try to consolidate the fragile ceasefire in force since October 10 in the Gaza Strip.
15 of 28 hostage remains delivered to Israel
Within the framework of this agreement negotiated on the basis of the Trump plan, Hamas handed over on October 13, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, the 20 live hostages that the Islamist group and its allies were still holding as of October 7.
So far, Israel has only recovered 15 of the 28 hostage remains that Hamas had promised to return at the same time, and the Palestinian Islamist group said it needed equipment and more time. On Monday, the US president warned that if Hamas did not respect the terms of the ceasefire, it would be “eradicated.”
Source: BFM TV
