Trump’s return to office raises hope for hostages
Ronen and Orna Neutra, whose son Omer was killed by Hamas, join ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to discuss the ceasefire and Hamas preparing to release hostages as President-elect Donald Trump returns to power .
If President-elect Donald Trump As he prepares to return to the White House, a long-awaited truce between Israel and Hamas is unfolding – offering hope to hostage families, despite some recognizing it as a “deal with the devil.”
“Before President Trump was elected, the deal was stuck,” Ronen Neutra, whose son Omer was killed by Hamas terrorists, told Fox News on Sunday.
“Let’s face it: the fact that President Trump had a clear message: ‘At my inauguration I want to see hostages come out or there will be hell to pay’ has had a huge impact in the Middle East, and that we are too. I hope that with his leadership we will see all 98 hostages come out from today, including the three female hostages.”
“We know their family, and we’re so emotionally involved in this as well and we’re excited to see them come out,” he said.
Newly elected US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media after meeting with Republican Senators at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, January 8, 2025. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump vowed to “pay all hell” if the remaining Hamas prisoners were not released before his inauguration date last year in a Truth Social post. The message offered a glimmer of hope for the families of some prisoners the person who called the message “exactly the kind of language we were missing.”
Ronen and his wife Orna’s son Omer, an IDF tank platoon commander and American Long Island, New Yorkwho was long believed to be one of Hamas’ prisoners, was recently determined to have been killed by the terrorist group on October 7, 2023.
His parents, who have remained outspoken about their demands for the hostages to be returned safely, plan to attend Trump’s inauguration in Washington DC on Monday.
Before the ceremony, female hostages Doron Steinbrecher, Romi Gonen and Emily Damari were released on Sunday in phase one of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Orna Neutra responded to the release during the special pre-inaugural Sunday broadcast of “Fox & Friends Weekend”.
“We have become one family, all hostage families. We’ve been going through this crazy rollercoaster of emotions for fifteen months now and we’ve heard so much about these young women. “We are very close to their families, and we are very, very, very excited and expectant to meet them and hopefully see them rehabilitate and get on with their lives,” she said.
More hostage releases are planned in phase two.
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Palestinians are celebrate in the same way the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
“This is a deal with the devil,” said Ronen Neutra. “These people, terrorists, killed 1,200 people in one day – the worst day in Israeli history since the Holocaust, and they killed 45 Americans at that time, so of course it’s terrible to see them celebrating now, but you know je What do we celebrate because we believe in the dignity of life. They believe in the dignity of death, and we believe that every soul matters 98 people back with President Trump’s leadership.”
“We trust him. We know he will do it,” he added. “We know that he is going to push all partners in the region, in the Middle East, to ensure that those 98 come back – including our son. We must bury our son properly. He deserves it. “
Reuters contributed to this report.
