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Floor Speech

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Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, 10 days ago, the family of Omer Neutra lit 23 candles on his birthday cake. But unlike previous birthdays, the candles kept burning because Omer wasn't there to blow them out.

Omer is one of the more than 200 people in Israel who were taken hostage by Hamas. The grandson of Holocaust survivors, he is an avid athlete and loves the New York Knicks.

He deferred his acceptance to Binghamton University to spend a gap year in Israel before he joined the IDF. On the day of the attack, he was working as a tank commander defending the Gaza border. He was last seen being forcibly removed at the hands of Hamas terrorists.

Since Omer's abduction, my office has been working with his family. We are doing everything we can to secure his safe release and the release of all the Americans who are still unaccounted for in Israel. I am grateful that the two American hostages released on Friday are doing well, but there are still several American citizens, many of whom may be injured or unwell, who remain in captivity. We must not stop fighting until all of them are safe.

On Thursday, I met with the family of 3-year-old Abigail Mor Edan. Her family told me the harrowing story of her and her two siblings. Abigail's brother Michael and her sister Amalia locked themselves in a closet while their mother was slaughtered in their home. Abigail was with her father who was shot while holding on to her. His body was later found, but Abigail is still missing.

I also met with the family of Keith and Aviva Siegel, grandparents who were kidnapped from kibbutz Kfar Aza. Keith is an American citizen and was seen being abducted with his wife.

The family of Itay Chen has been in contact with my office too. Itay is a 19-year-old who was born in New York City and is now serving in the IDF. He was supposed to return home to his family in just a few days to celebrate his brother's bar mitzvah.

Another hostage, named Sagui Dekel-Chen, is a U.S. citizen who was last seen fighting off the terrorists. His pregnant wife and two young daughters survived while hiding in their family's safe room.

I have also heard from the family of Judy Weinstein, who was born in New York State. She and her husband Gad were on a walk when the air raid sirens blared. The couple hid face down in a field as hundreds of rockets rained overhead. Judy called an ambulance because she and her husband had been shot, but the ambulance was unable to reach them, and the couple is now missing.

None of these people--these innocent people--deserve to be abandoned. They are Americans. We must fight for them as if they were our own sons, our own daughters, our own grandmothers and grandfathers. These people are our family, our lifeblood, our heart and soul.

My commitment to these families is that we will not give up on them. We will go to the ends of the Earth to bring their loved ones home. And my message to the terrorists is: We will not give in. Your darkness and your evil will not destroy us.

We will keep our hope alive and rally around these families. We will light our loved ones' candles and never blow them out.

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