Hanan Amar, 38: Barber and devoted dad of three children

Hanan (Hanania) Amar, 38, from Ashkelon, was murdered by Hamas terrorists while trying to flee the Supernova music festival on October 7.

He attended the rave with his close friend, Ofer Udi, and they left the festival when the rocket fire began, seeking safety in a roadside bomb shelter along the highway. There they were both slain when terrorists threw grenades inside, killing many of those huddled within. His family said he was found covering the bodies of two women, who he had tried to protect in his final moments.

Hanan was buried in Beit Shemesh on October 9. He is survived by his three children, Avishag, 13, Noam, 11, and Eitan, 5, his parents Yolanda and Haim, and his four siblings Tamar, Asaf, Dudu and Daniel. His 18-year-old nephew, Neriya, was murdered in 2021 amid a dispute at a party.

Growing up in the Beit Shemesh area, Hanan later settled in Ashkelon where he worked as a barber at a salon.

His cousin, Chen Vaknin, wrote on Facebook that the family was comforted that they were able to bury him, and that he did not fall into the hands of Hamas.

“It’s been crazy ever since that you are not here,” she wrote. “But you certainly would have been into the trend of soldiers with mustaches,” she joked. “There are no words to describe the light that you were in our lives, I will miss the sense of security I had when I was with you.”

Chen wrote that she would “forever remember your rolling laughter, and our conversations — and you I will remember forever. However hard it is for me now, I know that you will find the way to get to me, to enlighten me — to enlighten all of us, because it is dark without you!”

Hanan’s sister, Tamar, told a local news site that her brother had the best laugh and smile, one in which “his eyes would be closed by his cheeks and immediately make everyone else smile.”

“We would make him laugh just to be infected by his laughter,” added Tamar. “He had the biggest heart of anyone I knew, a huge heart. With him, everything was simple and anything I asked him for he would say ‘no problem sis’ and then find a solution… His kids were his whole life.”

His mother, Yolanda, told the site that Hanan “was a good boy. He loved everyone, especially his kids. He never disappointed me or was rude to me. He was a family man, with a smile on his lips and a winner of hearts. He was a conversationalist, loving and full of kindness. Even in his death, he tried to help others.”

Yolanda said Hanan would “always say that he lived for his kids, and if they needed his eyes he would give them to them. Hanan was a good boy, special and loving. We were privileged to have this child for 38 years, the loss of Hanan has broken us again after we lost our grandson. Now we are experiencing loss again.”

Read more Those We Have Lost stories here.