Staff Sgt. Nehoray Amitay, 20: Squad commander with innocent blue eyes
Killed battling Hamas at the IDF Nahal Oz outpost on October 7
Staff Sgt. Nehoray Levi Amitay, 20, a squad commander in the Golani Brigade from Rinatya, was killed on October 7 battling the Hamas invasion of the Nahal Oz IDF outpost.
Nehoray was on duty at the Nahal Oz base when the Hamas onslaught began, and his family said he helped to battle the invasion of dozens of terrorists of the outpost. At a certain point in the fighting, they said, he arrived at a bomb shelter which was also overrun by Hamas gunmen.
There he continued to battle the terrorists despite being wounded in his hand, and was then shot a second time but kept fighting, before he was wounded a third time and killed, his family said.
He was buried on October 12 in Yehud. He is survived by his parents, Hagit and Harel, and his siblings Matan, Itamar and Maya, as well as his girlfriend Hagar.
Born and raised in Rinatya, a small moshav in central Israel, he attended high school in nearby Shoham, focusing his studies on sports and biology, according to an online eulogy.
He loved skateboarding and soccer, especially his beloved Beitar Jerusalem team, his family said.
His girlfriend of the past three years, Hagar Toledo, wrote on Instagram to “Nehoray, the love of my life.”
“We didn’t need anyone or anything else, just each other,” she wrote. “Our love blossomed from true and real friendship, and it was clear from the beginning that this was it. Nothing could stop us — not the difference in our lifestyles, the distance we had to live with during our army service, the longing and the time were weak in the face of our bond.”
Their plans for the future included just each other, she wrote. “We weren’t thinking of a big trip for self-discovery, just the two of us in southern Italy with pizza, that was enough. We wanted to find a studio apartment in the moshav, close enough to our families, to call it home, because a room is just a room, the togetherness is home.”
“I love you, my beautiful face, my guardian angel, the soul that was too good for this world, my soulmate, who would argue with me until the middle of the night until I’d fold and agree to accept that you love me more,” she added. “I miss you with all my heart.”
His mother, Hagit, wrote online to “Nehoray, my wonderful boy, who never did anything bad to anyone, with a constant smile on his face.”
“My beautiful boy, with innocent blue eyes who loved the army and fought on behalf of his soldiers until the last moment, until he was wounded and couldn’t help his soldiers anymore,” she wrote.
“The whole family has such longing, you’ve left such a hole in our hearts,” Hagit added. “It’s still hard to believe that you won’t come home. I still keep waiting for you to walk in and hug me and tell me it was a mistake and that you’re OK. I’m waiting for you to open the window of my room like you did the last time you came home and say ‘Mom’ with a smile on your face, and I’ll just hug you one more time and give you lots of kisses and smell you once more. Just one more time. Just once more.”
