Maj. Ilay Zisser, 27: Elite unit fighter who had ‘normal dreams’

Maj. Ilay Zisser, 27, a soldier in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, from Givat Ela, was killed on October 7 battling the Hamas invasion of Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

At 7:30 that morning, he was called in to head to the front lines to counter the Hamas onslaught. Ilay was part of a small team of nine Sayeret Matkal soldiers — including his close friend and confidant, Cpt. Hadar Kama — who were among the first Israeli forces to head into the besieged Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

Vastly outnumbered, the elite soldiers charged ahead, and Ilay, Hadar, Maj. Tal Cohen and Cpt. Amir Zur were killed in the firefight. Ilay and Hadar, who had served together for years and had formed a strong bond, shared a birthday — July 11 — and also a date of death: October 7, 2023.

Ilay was buried on October 12 in the Nahalal Cemetery in the Jezreel Valley. He is survived by his wife, Tomer, his parents, Vered and Daniel, and his three older siblings Ido, Lior and Noam.

Ilay grew up in Givat Ela, and lived in Beersheba with his wife, Tomer, who he met in the army in 2018 and wed in 2022.

A career officer, Ilay had been in the military for close to a decade when he was killed, first enlisting in 2014 as a cadet in the Israeli Air Force’s flight course, and later serving as a soldier and commander in Sayeret Matkal, where he eventually headed his own team. Ilay’s family said he planned to eventually finish his military service and study engineering, with a focus on environmental and ecological projects.

He loved to play chess, his loved ones said, and was also very outdoorsy, enjoying hiking and running and exploring the country. In his memory, his family has set up a “Running with Zisser” initiative, staging memorial runs around the country, “preserving his spirit and legacy while doing the things he loved and promoting a cause he believed in.”

His wife, Tomer, told the Kan public broadcaster that together they had bought a plot of land in Kibbutz Shoval outside Beersheba, where they planned to build a house and raise a family.

“We had normal dreams — a family, four kids, a dog. He was my home and he was my roots.” His death, she said, is like “someone detached me from my roots, separated me from my foundation.”

Speaking to a Kan memorial podcast, Tomer said that “Ilay loved to play the guitar, to read poetry, to play chess. He loved to travel around Israel, he really loved the desert.”

On October 5, 2023, the couple traveled with the members of Ilay’s Sayeret Matkal team to the Tamar Festival, a flagship music and cultural event that takes place each year near the Dead Sea on Sukkot.

“It was so much fun, we were all together, we danced, we enjoyed, we heard the songs — and Ilay was so excited, it was his first time at a festival like this,” said Tomer. “In hindsight, it was almost like a goodbye party for the team.”

“My treasure, your energy will always accompany me, and I will miss you forever,” she said.

Ilay’s mother, Vered Zisser, told the Kan public broadcaster that despite her son’s high-risk job, “I didn’t worry. I had so much faith in him, in his abilities, in the fact that he was experienced and measured and smart and knew how to plan.”

Vered said she looked up in a dictionary “the definition of a hero. It’s someone who goes out to save somebody without thinking about themselves. That was Ilay. He’s a hero, but I’d be happier if he was alive. I’d be happy if he had waited just one more moment.”

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