Liav Asayag, 23: Computer science student who ‘dreamed of success’
Murdered by Hamas terrorists while fleeing the Supernova music festival on October 7
Liav Asayag, 23, from Afula, was murdered by Hamas terrorists while trying to flee the Supernova music festival on October 7.
He attended the rave with a group of friends, including Sahar Ashuan and Dvir Rahamim. When the attack began, he told his mother not to worry, that he was with some police officers and in a safe place.
Liav and his friends decided to leave the site of the festival but along the way they came across people who had been wounded and stopped to help. When they came under attack, they tried to escape, and Liav, Dvir and Sahar were all killed, while two of their friends managed to escape.
His family waited for any news of his fate for more than 10 days, until they were informed that his body had been identified. He was buried in Afula on October 18.
Liav is survived by his parents, Michal and Eitan, and his brothers Or and Ido.
Born and raised in Nazareth Illit, now called Nof HaGalil, he attended local schools, excelling in his studies, according to a state eulogy. His family later moved and settled in Afula.
He was an active volunteer with the Krembo Wings organization for children with special needs, and Aharai, a group encouraging young leadership. Liav was also into physical fitness, including MMA (mixed martial arts) training and also enjoyed anime cartoons.
After high school, Liav enlisted in the IDF and served in the Combat Engineering Corps. Following his release, he started studying for the psychometric exam to pursue higher education, and also worked first at a gas station and later as a security guard at a hotel in Eilat. He completed a year of pre-university studies and was slated to begin his degree in computer science at Ben Gurion University in Beersheba just after he was killed.
His cousin, Orpaz, told a local radio station that Liav “was supposed to celebrate his birthday a week after [he was killed]. He was a person you couldn’t forget, a huge smile, he was very sturdy and big and stable with a cynical and sly smile on his face. He was really a person you remember, moral and ethical, he volunteered with different organizations… and was also in an advanced class [in school], was about to start his studies.”
Liav, she said, “wanted to fit everything in, to enjoy, to be with his friends, to be happy, he made sure to always spend Friday night dinners with his family… he was so significant to everyone who met him.”
Liav’s mother, Michal, told a local news outlet that her son “dreamed of success. First to be a good and excellent student, to find a good job, to build himself and his life up and to take care of me and his brother. Liav was fully special. A good boy. An excellent student. You can’t say anything negative about him. A macho man, witty, with cynical and dark humor.”
It was important to her, she said, to memorialize him in many ways, to remember “who was Liav — a young man with good manners, values, dedication and respect for others. These aren’t things you find in a lot of youth these days. There are so many things you can learn from him.”
