Omer Neutra was one of the three slain hostages whose remains were returned to Israel US President Donald Trump first announced on Sunday, this was later confirmed by Omer's parents. The National Forensic Center has still not made any public statement on the identities of the returned remains at this time.
Omer's father Ronen confirmed Trump's statement to Israeli media saying, "Our Omer is finally on the soil of Israel. So much pain and so much relief."
Neutra was a lone soldier from New York, serving as a tank platoon commander in the 77th Battalion of the 7th Brigade. With Neutra's return, this would leave Itay Chen as the only dual US-Israeli national whose remains are still within the Gaza strip.
The remains of three slain hostages crossed into Israeli territory on Sunday evening at around 9:30 p.m. and have been transferred to the National Center for Forensic Medicine for identification according to the Health Ministry.
Hamas said earlier it would return the remains of three Gaza hostages at 8 p.m. Sunday. The actual handover to the Red Cross happened around 9 p.m.
The remains are now en route to the L. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir for identification.
Hamas claimed that it had located the remains of three hostages, sources within the terrorist organization told Al Arabiya on Sunday.
On Friday, Hamas returned the partial remains of three people, though forensic testing revealed that the remains did not belong to any of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
The Red Cross handed over the remains to IDF troops overnight, but Hamas had not specified whose remains it was handing over.
Hamas said in a statement on Saturday that it had initially offered three samples from unidentified bodies to Israeli authorities for testing.
Remains of two Gaza hostages returned on Thursday
On Thursday, the remains of Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch were returned after being held in Gaza for over two years.
"We are determined to return all of our fallen hostages... We will not rest until we bring them all home," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Thursday at an IDF combat officer graduation ceremony.
This is a developing story.