‘Rest in peace, war hero’: Funeral held for slain officer, ex-hostage Col. Asaf Hamami

Thousands of people gathered on Tuesday for the funeral of Col. Asaf Hamami, 40, whose body was returned by Hamas more than two years after he was killed and abducted to the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.

Ahead of the ceremony, people lined the streets in Rosh Ha’ayin for the funeral procession, displaying Israeli flags as the casket was driven to the Kiryat Shaul Military Cemetery.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir called the officer a “war hero” in his eulogy.

“Hamami, you captivated everyone who met you with an unfeigned charm, including your subordinates and your superiors. You led and guided with effortless authenticity,” Zamir said. “You were a commander with a strength of heart and professional wisdom that inspired, and above all, you believed in and nurtured the strength of your people and truly loved them.”

Zamir recalled that as the chief of the Southern Command, he awarded Hamami — then the commander of the Givati Brigade’s Tzabar Battalion — a certificate of excellence for his outstanding work. “I know that you would have continued to command in the highest positions of the IDF in the same way,” he said.

After his death, Zamir said, commanders would tell their troops to act “with courage and determination like Hamami.”

“How proud you would have been of them, Hamami, of their heroism and of all our troops who led the IDF’s maneuvers in Gaza and countless arenas since that day of terrible failure, until victory. A victory achieved after two years of the most complex and powerful military effort we have known in the country’s history, which brought the living hostages back home for recovery, and reshaped Israel’s security conception against regional threats,” Zamir said.

“Rest in peace, war hero, for the victory was achieved, and we continue to fight to continue to win,” he said. “I promise you that the victory achieved from the strength of the cohesion of the people’s army and the nation will continue to give us the power to continue to build, to grow, and also to fight with that cohesion which is necessary for our existence,” Zamir continued.

“From here, we will carry the command ‘to be good — to be Hamami,’ forever,” he added.

Hamami, the commander of the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade, was killed fighting Hamas terrorists in the Gaza border community of Kibbutz Nirim on the morning of October 7, 2023, and his body was abducted to Gaza.

He was returned to Israel along with the remains of two other slain soldiers — Cpt. Omer Neutra and Staff Sgt. Oz Daniel — on Sunday evening, with Israeli authorities confirming their identities the following morning.

Hamami’s father, Ilan, said in his eulogy that his son wrote a will before becoming an officer, in which he vowed never to be captured alive, and requested that no prisoner exchange deals would be made for him.

“We only honored your request partially, because you didn’t fall alone, and you did not fall in captivity alone. Therefore, a deal was made. But your mother and brother Eitan and I stood by your principles,” he said.

Clara, Hamami’s mother, said she wished she could have held her son in his last moments and “ascend to the clouds” with him.

“You did your part. You left behind a light of heart, soul and endless love. And yet — eight hostages remain behind. And all of them should be returned now,” she said.

Hamami’s wife, Saphir, recalled at the beginning of the war speaking to Karnit Goldwasser, whose husband, Ehud, was killed along with fellow IDF reservist Eldad Regev by Hezbollah in the attack that sparked the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

“I asked to consult with her about ways to bring you back. She said, ‘Saphir, I promise you, you will succeed in bringing Asaf home,'” she said. “I memorized this sentence.”

Saphir noted the fear of families whose deceased loved ones remain held in Gaza, and said she was sure that they, too, would be brought home.

“There is no other option on the table,” she said, vowing to continue to support hostage families in honor of her late husband.

When Hamas launched its assault, Hamami was spending Shabbat at the Gaza Division base near the border with his 5-year-old son, Alon. He handed his son to the other soldiers to take him to a safe place and set out to battle the terrorists.

He was considered a Hamas hostage for eight weeks, until the IDF confirmed his death, officially listing his status as a “fallen IDF soldier held captive by a terror group” and his date of death as October 7.

Hamami’s death was declared by the chief rabbi, based on findings obtained by the military in the Gaza Strip. The findings allowed Hamami to have a funeral according to halacha, or Jewish law, even while his body remained absent.

He is survived by his wife Saphir and their three children, and his parents, Clara and Ilan.