Sgt. Itamar Ayash, 19: Doting big brother was Marvel comics superfan

Sgt. Itamar Avraham Ayash, 19, a Home Front Command soldier, from Kiryat Gat, was killed on October 7 when Hamas gunmen overran the Urim IDF base.

There were only 14 soldiers on the Urim Base that morning, and Itamar began a guard duty shift shortly before the attack began. When the sirens first started, they headed to the on-base shelter, but when they realized

Itamar called his commander to say he heard voices in Arabic inside the base, and he was scared to head to the war room, which was believed to be the safest place on the base.

His friend and comrade Cpl. Lior Levy went to go get him, and they and Cpl. Ofir Davidian were all slain by Hamas gunmen before they were able to reach the war room.

Ultimately the Hamas invaders also succeeded in storming the war room, and five other soldiers were killed on the base that day: Sgt. Danit Cohen, Sgt. Shir Shlomo, Sgt. Adi Groman,  Cpt. Alina Pravosudova and Sgt. Maj. Aharon Farash.

Itamar was buried on October 8 in Kiryat Gat. He is survived by his parents, Leah and Yuval Nisim, and his two younger brothers Elior Yehuda and Yohai.

The oldest in his family, Itamar was born in Ashkelon and raised in Kiryat Gat, where he attended local schools and excelled in his studies, according to an IDF eulogy.

He was quiet, humble and sensitive, his family said, a loyal friend and a devoted brother, who helped raise his siblings who had special needs.

He loved the Marvel universe, reading comic books and seeing all the superhero movies, especially enjoying those with Spider-Man, Iron Man and the Hulk, and he enjoyed playing video games. He also loved watching soccer, particularly his beloved Barcelona team, and dreamed of one day seeing them play in person.

After graduating high school, Itamar enlisted in the IDF in August 2022, joining the Technology and Maintenance Corps and training to be a dedicated systems technician, before being stationed at the Home Front Command base at Urim. He loved history, and dreamed of studying it at university after he completed his mandatory military duty.

Itamar’s friend Yair Tadjiev wrote on an Instagram memorial page about meeting at age 6: “We were best friends, we grew up together, the same school, the same hobbies. We would be at each other’s houses everyday, we’d play FIFA or soccer in the park. He was such a nice kid and everyone loved him… he honored his mom more than anything — he was a really special kid. I’ll never find another friend like him.”

His mother, Leah, told the Mako news site that “he left his room neat and organized — he has an Xbox he bought two months ago, a TV and a collection of Marvel action figures that he loved so much. Now they’re all orphaned.”

Leah said that Itamar was a doting big brother to his younger brothers, who both have special needs: “He would come home as early as he could from base to help me with his younger brother, to take him wherever he was going,” she said. “It’s so hard for me think of Itamar in the past tense. He was my whole world.”

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