Those we have lost

Staff Sgt. Eviatar Ochayon Abukasis, 22: Golani driver and artist

Killed battling the Hamas invasion of the Kissufim IDF outpost on October 7

Staff Sgt. Evyatar Ochayon (Courtesy)
Staff Sgt. Evyatar Ochayon (Courtesy)

Staff Sgt. Eviatar Ochayon Abukasis, 22, an ambulance driver in the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion, from Jerusalem, was killed on October 7 while battling the Hamas invasion of the Kissufim IDF outpost.

With the start of the rocket fire from Gaza, Eviatar and the others on base ran to the bomb shelter. When they received word that there was a Hamas invasion of the outpost, they ran to get their weapons and returned to the shelter. Eviatar stationed himself at one entrance to the shelter, and he and the soldiers inside fought valiantly against the Hamas gunmen.

Eviatar was killed when a Hamas terrorist threw an explosive device inside the shelter, slain there along with his commander, Maj. Raz Peretz and five other soldiers: Staff Sgt. Yogev Aharon, Staff Sgt. Or Asto, Staff Sgt. Brando Flores Garcia, Staff Sgt. Teshager Taka and Sgt. Uriel Segal.

October 7, 2023, was supposed to be Eviatar’s final day in active duty during his mandatory IDF service.

He was buried on October 11 on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. He is survived by his parents, Yaakov and Yasmin, and his six younger siblings, Orel, Miryam, Rut, Israel, Noam and Tehilla.

The oldest of 7, Eviatar grew up in Jerusalem, attending Chabad schools in the Gilo neighborhood as the child of parents who had found religion later in life, and later a yeshiva in Safed, according to an IDF eulogy. He was an artistic child, drawing and painting, including during his time in yeshiva, his family said.

He later left the yeshiva and moved to a religious boarding school in the settlement of Ovnat next to the Dead Sea, where he continued his artistic endeavors, including sculpting, woodworks and ceramics.

Eviatar attended the Derech Eretz pre-military academy in the Negev, and in March 2021 he enlisted in the IDF, serving in the Golani Brigade. He underwent a number of training courses, and in his final job worked as an ambulance driver stationed at the Kissufim outpost.

His sister, Miryam, wrote on Instagram, “My big brother, the kid I admire and appreciate, the most talented, the most beautiful, the most brave and the most heroic.”

“You fought and worked hard even when it wasn’t easy and you never gave up on yourself,” she wrote. “A hero in life and a hero in death.”

She recalled his “big blue eyes, gorgeous curly hair — or as we called it, a cauliflower on your head — a little reddish beard that you finally listened to us and grew, almost 6’3″ tall… and as your sister I remember you in every period a little differently, but your heart, your enormous heart that needed a body as big as yours to contain, remained the same heart, one of the things that most symbolized you.”

Eviatar’s mother, Yasmin, told Army Radio that her son was “a magical boy, very special… a gentle soul, very, very sensitive.”

Yasmin said that no matter his religious path, “he continued with his values, he was more righteous than 100 righteous men. He had a very unique sensitivity to those around him, that was Eviatar… He had a lot of life wisdom.”

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