Staff Sgt. Regev Amar, 20: Paratrooper dreamed of studying medicine

Staff Sgt. Regev Amar, 20, a soldier in the Paratroopers Brigade, from Kibbutz Sde Nehemia, was killed on October 7 battling the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Kissufim.

The morning of the attack, Regev and his comrades were in the middle of a squad commander’s course with the Bismalach Brigade at a base next Yeruham, but were immediately called into action.

They arrived in the area around 9 a.m. and engaged in several battles with Hamas gunmen at junctions near the Gaza border. They headed toward the area of Nahal HaBesor park, continuing to engage in gun battles along the way.

The team then arrived at Kibbutz Kissufim and engaged in heavy gunfire with the Hamas terrorists who had invaded the kibbutz. Regev was shot three times, and according to his family, his comrades wanted to try and rescue him but he told them not to risk their lives in doing so. He died shortly afterward, alongside Staff Sgt. Adam Agmon, Staff Sgt. Omri Peretz, Sgt. Bar Yankilov, Sgt. Lavi Buchnik and Sgt. Matan Malka.

Regev was buried in Sde Nehemia on October 12. He is survived by his parents, David and Gilanit, and his sisters Roni and Shaked.

Born in the US, Regev moved to Israel with his parents when a year old after they completed their time stationed there as emissaries and settled in Kibbutz Sde Nehemia in the Upper Galilee.

There, middle-child Regev grew up surrounded by animals, streams and many friends, according to an IDF eulogy. An inquisitive child who was always thirsty for knowledge, he attended schools in the nearby Kfar Blum.

He played water polo for many years, and loved to travel around the country, bouncing from Eilat to the Golan Heights and the Dead Sea, his loved ones said. He explored nature and knew how to identify animal tracks, plants, insects and constellations.

After finishing high school, Regev did a year of national service at the Ein Gedi field school, during which he served as a tour guide.

He enlisted in the IDF in December 2021, beginning training in the elite Shayetet 13 naval force, although after 10 months he was dropped from the course. He then spent several months in the Duvdevan commando unit before settling in the Paratroopers Brigade as a Negevist.

Just a couple of months before he was killed, Regev began a squad commander’s course. He dreamed of later completing an officer’s course, eventually studying medicine and returning to the army as a commander, his family said.

His mother, Gilanit, told a local news outlet that Regev’s father picked his name, which means a patch of land, years before he was born, “and Regev did have a connection to the land and to the country. A very strong connection.”

Gilanit said that while he had a challenging childhood, his time playing water polo really changed him, “and he blossomed from a skinny boy into a large man, strong and sturdy. He was always surrounded by friends. He was always the center of things in the kibbutz and later as a volunteer. When anyone needed help they would call Regev.”

She said her son was a “brilliant child” who completed many more majors in high school than he needed to, focusing on math, physics, Bible and geography, “for his soul and also for the future. He was full of knowledge. A genius. The salt of the earth.”

Gilanit said Regev had many dreams for the future: “When he was in high school he said he wanted to be the next IDF chief of staff. When he grew up he said he wanted to be the next prime minister. In the army he wanted to become an officer, it was important to him. He said that his goal was to lead and educate the next generation of soldiers.”

After the army she said, he dreamed of studying medicine and had already started studying for the matriculation exam: “Regev was a man with values and an ideology. In 21 years he managed to do what people don’t get to in 70 years. An incredible boy who became an angel.”

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