Staff Sgt. Or Asto, 21: Golani soldier with a unique sense of humor
Killed while battling the Hamas invasion of the Kissufim IDF outpost on October 7
Staff Sgt. Or Asto, 21, a logistics NCO in the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion, from Beersheba, was killed on October 7 while battling Hamas terrorists at the Kissufim IDF outpost.
He is one of 29 soldiers in the 51st Battalion who were slain while fighting the Hamas invasion that day — 13 of them just at Kissufim.
Or was buried on October 12 in Beersheba. He is survived by his parents, Dovale and Artavia, and his six siblings, Yitzhak, Fasika, Moshe, Eden, Ofek and Tohar.
Born in Israel to immigrant parents from Ethiopia, Or was killed a week after celebrating his 21st birthday.
His family and friends said in the year before he was killed, he began to lead a more observant and religious lifestyle. He had a unique sense of humor, they said, a close circle of friends and a bashful smile. In his memory, his family installed a stand for passersby to wrap tefillin at a mall in Beersheba.
His older sister, Eden, wrote on an Instagram memorial page that “Or was a unique child, a very good boy, quiet, who didn’t get involved in other people’s business and never did anything bad to anyone. He always loved to give to others, he was a listening ear to all, simply an angel.”
Or had a “very cynical and witty sense of humor, he always knew how to make us laugh, even when he wasn’t even trying it came naturally,” Eden added. “At home he never said no and never complained! When he would come home from base instead of resting he would choose to help with preparations for Shabbat — because that was Or.”
His younger brother, Ofek, wrote on Instagram that Or “was everything to me, my safe place for everything, the person who guided me to the best and most correct places, the man who watched over me in every situation in life.”
Or was “the best person in the world, the strongest man, who everyone loved, the most beautiful — especially most beautiful within. A man with the most unique words of wisdom and special jokes.”
Ofek said he remembers “always copying everything you did, and everyone would be impressed and inside I knew that without you I had nothing, my angel… you always had the words that would leave me speechless, but now I understand that it’s all over, now I really am speechless.”
