Shani Amin, 18: Recent high school grad was family’s ‘joy and light’
Murdered by Hamas terrorists after leaving the Supernova music festival on October 7
Shani Amin, 18, from Ashdod, was murdered by Hamas terrorists after fleeing the Supernova music festival on October 7.
She attended the rave with her boyfriend, Adam Ilayev, and when the rocket fire began, they were among the first to flee the festival and made it safely to Beersheba, where they were supposed to meet up with a friend. But when they weren’t able to reach that friend — who was himself hiding from the terror attack at the rave — they decided instead to head home to Ashdod.
Without understanding the intensity of the attack, they were traveling near Sderot along Route 232 when they saw what they thought were IDF soldiers. But they were actually Hamas terrorists, who opened fire on their car, killing Adam and seriously wounding Shani, who managed to call her grandfather before she ultimately died of her wounds. Her body was not identified for more than 10 days.
Shani was buried in Ashdod on October 17, alongside Adam, who had been buried several days earlier. She is survived by her parents, Nir and Merav, and her siblings Idan, Shira and Tahel.
The second oldest of her siblings, Shani was described by her family as being optimistic and full of joy and loving music and dancing, according to a municipal eulogy. She would choreograph dances for her friends and classmates, they said, and always loved to perform.
At age 17 she met Adam on the beach and they quickly became a couple, and they were planning a trip together to Amsterdam that they never got to take. Shani had recently finished high school and was slated to soon enlist in the army when she was killed. Shortly after her 18th birthday in April 2023, she got a tattoo with the lyrics, “Here comes the sun” on her back.
She was particularly close with her grandfather, Ami Kalfon, who said at a ceremony marking a year since she was murdered that “every day I want to write to you, to speak to you, to hear you and to embrace you… You were always so present, and I can’t go on without you. You are the air and the joy and the light everywhere you went — and suddenly you are no longer.”
A memorial Instagram page described Shani as “a strong, powerful, opinionated, beautiful and different woman.”
“When she loves you, she loves you all the way, there’s no way out of her heart — you’re stuck there,” the post reads. “She’s a warrior for justice, she was born to this world to make things right and to show what true joy is, what is a hug that leaves marks on your body and what is contagious laughter that rings in your ears for weeks.”
“She left this world to make us appreciate those things,” it added. “She shone everywhere she went and you couldn’t miss her. It’s like she did it on purpose, to tell us, ‘Look at me, this is me, I’m here, but not for very long.'”
