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Faces of Israel’s fallen: Soldiers, a peace activist, a family of 5 and more

(JTA) — This week, after a deadly attack by Hamas that has so far claimed the lives of over 900 Israelis, the Jewish world has joined to share in the grief of the mourners and lament the lives cut brutally short. Below are just a fraction of the men and women who were killed since Saturday — some are soldiers, most are civilians, and all helped make up the rich tapestry of the Jewish state.

A peace activist cut down in his prime

Hayim Katsman received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies in 2021, dedicating his scholarship to understanding the interrelations of religion and politics in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Back home in Israel, he opposed the occupation and refused to cross the Green Line into the West Bank. Recently he ran a student volunteer program to develop a community garden for mothers and children in the Bedouin town of Rahat.

On Saturday, he was murdered by Hamas terrorists in his home in Kibbutz Holit. His sister, Noy, told a Seattle TV station that terrorists had invaded his home, sparing a female neighbor but killing him.

Katsman celebrated his 32nd birthday on Oct. 3. His parents, Daniel and Hannah Katsman, moved to Israel from New York City in 1990. Hayim’s late grandfather was Ben Zion Wacholder, a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

While getting his master’s degree at Ben-Gurion University, Hayim headed the adjunct professors’ union. He taught Hebrew school at a synagogue while living in Seattle.

After working as a car mechanic for many years, he became the gardener of the kibbutz, his mother told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. For a while, he opened a bar on the kibbutz. “He was a vegan and cooked and baked. At the beginning of the pandemic, when making sourdough became popular, he asked me how it felt to have started a trend,” Hannah Katsman said.

Hayim played the bass guitar and held performances as a DJ with a mix of Jewish and Palestinian music.

“He was good-natured, a supportive son, a friend to me and many others,” said his mother, the resource development coordinator at the Center for Women’s Justice. “He lent me his ancient, cherished car during his recent trip to India, although it looked like a wreck it ran smoothly. Once when I was outside replacing the oil, someone drove by and handed me his card, offering to buy it. I didn’t get a chance to tell Hayim. I believe all the cars in the kibbutz were destroyed by the Hamas terrorists.”

A family gone in an instant of brutality

Tamar Kedem Siman Tov, her husband Johnny (Yonatan) Siman Tov and their three children. (Facebook)

In an instant of brutality, an entire family was gone: Tamar Kedem Siman Tov, her husband Johnny (Yonatan) Siman Tov and their three children, 6-year-old twins Shahar and Arbel and their 4-year-old son Omer, were murdered Saturday in Kibbutz Nir Oz on the Gaza border. The family were in their home “safe room” during a barrage of Hamas rockets and texted friends that they were safe, but Hamas gunmen broke in and slaughtered the family.

A community leader who was running to become head of the Eshkol Regional Council, Tamar served as an advisor to the ministry of the interior on regional issues and was the former director of the Bikurim Youth Village for Excellence in Art and Music, a boarding school for at-risk youth.  “We create equal opportunities and enable youth with very little background in art or music, and with academic difficulties, to excel in these areas,” she once told an interviewer. “Those who have the desire and the basic potential are given an opportunity – with the help of the special educational team – to break through the glass ceiling.”

According to Tamar’s Facebook page, she grew up in Jerusalem and received her master’s in management and public policy at Ben-Gurion University. Johnny was an operations manager and wheat farmer on the kibbutz.

“Love Sukkot!” Tamar wrote on Facebook on Thursday, in the middle of the harvest holiday. “I enjoy the campaigning and am moved by the support and sympathy of the people I meet.”

A soldier who sprinted toward danger

Yoav Malayev, 19, with his mother Maya Cohen-Malayev and father Alex Malayev (Courtesy Yonatan Cohen)

Yoav Malayev, 19, was killed in a battle with Hamas terrorists at the Zikim Army base during the opening hours of the war. On Saturday morning, when his emergency squad was called up, he rushed to reinforce the front gate, which he knew was being guarded by just one soldier. According to one account, he encountered 10 terrorists and engaged in “face-to-face” battle. Four of them were killed before he fell.

Yoav lived in Kiryat Ono, with his mother Maya Cohen-Malayev, father Alex Malayev and siblings Talya, Avner and Harel. “My sister, his mother, grew up in both Israel and Canada,” Rabbi Yonatan Cohen of Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, California, told JTA. “She returned to Israel in her early 20s and is a professor of educational psychology at Bar-Ilan University. His father is a retired colonel from the IDF and said to be the highest-ranking Bucharian Jew in in Israel.”

“Maya raised Yoav, their eldest, with utmost pride,” Rabbi Benjamin Lau, the former senior rabbi of the Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalem, wrote in a Facebook post. “He finished AP studies in both psychology and physics. A precise, sensitive, compassionate, and mission-driven individual, brimming with a sense of calling, he completed his officer training with honors and was posted to an armored brigade. Israelis are raising the next generation in this place with lots of faith and hope and with a profound understanding of the long, long road ahead.”

Shielding their son in their final moments

Debbie Shachar Troen Matias and Shlomo Matias (Facebook)

Debbie Shachar Troen Matias, 50, and Shlomo Matias were killed during the attack on Kibbutz Holit. According to their family, the couple were lying on top of and shielding their teenage son, Rotem, who was shot in the abdomen but survived. Debbie was the daughter of Prof. Ilan Troen, emeritus professor of Israel studies at Brandeis and Ben-Gurion Universities.

“My daughter and son-in-law were killed today, but, in their dying, saved [my teenage grandson’s] life,” Ilan Troen, who had recently returned to Israel upon his retirement from Brandeis, told NPR. “They were all together in the secure room. And they covered his body, and he was saved.”

Debbie attended the Berkeley College of Music in Boston and the Rimon School of Music in Tel Aviv, where she met her husband.

“[Deborah and Shlomi] loved music, life, each other, their kids. I would ask [Rotem] to think of the joy that they sought and had in their lives rather than the focus on that day,” Troen told WBZ-TV in Boston.

A father and son, committed to education

Moshe Ohayon and Eliad Ohayon (Facebook)

Moshe Ohayon, 51, above left, of the southern municipality of Ofakim, grew up in Yad Rambam, a moshav in central Israel. As an educator, he was dedicated to bringing Israelis on the economic periphery “into the center of social and economic life in Israel — as a right, not a form of charity — by creating new initiatives to lead the way and helping future social entrepreneurs,” he once said. Ohayon was a graduate of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership and was director of the 929 Project, an effort to encourage people to read the entire Hebrew Bible over a four-year cycle. He was also board chairman of the Shaharit Institute, a nonpartisan think tank working to bridge social and political divides in Israel.

He and his son Eliad Ohayon, above right, a teacher thought to be in his 20s, were listed among those killed in the weekend attacks; Moshe’s wife and Eliad’s mother, Sarit, is among their survivors. There were no further details available.

“Roey was loved by everyone who met him”

Reoy Weiser (Facebook)

Roey Weiser, 21, a first sergeant in the Golani Brigade, died trying to repel the first wave of infiltrators at or near Kerem Shalom, a kibbutz on the border with Gaza. Weiser was the son of Yisrael and Naomi Weiser of Efrat, who both immigrated to Israel from the United States with their families as children. A soldier who took part in Saturday’s firefight told the family that Roey “went out to fight the enemy almost all on his own and managed to repel the attack, but suffered a direct hit. Because of his bravery, 12 soldiers were saved.”

Roey “always had a smile on his face, a joke or a funny comment,” his uncle, Ashley Perry, a former advisor to Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, said on Facebook. “It is said very often and easily, but Roey was loved by everyone who met him and all wanted to be his friend and hang out with him.”

A star soccer player

Lior Asulin (Via X)

Lior Asulin, 43, who over 15 seasons with various teams established himself as one of the top strikers in Israel’s domestic soccer league, was among the more than 250 festival-goers gunned down at a desert rave in southern Israel after Hamas militants opened fire and looked to take many hostage. A native of Ra’anana, Asulin grew up in the youth system of the Maccabi Herzliya soccer club and was signed to a long-term contract with Herzliya after the 2001-2002 season. He also played with Apollon Limassol FC, a Cypriot sports club. Asulin had found peace working on a horse farm after serving nearly a year in prison in 2021 for selling marijuana. “The Hapoel Tel Aviv club bows its head and sends condolences and strength to Lior’s family at this difficult time,” one of his former clubs said in a statement.

A senior officer and father of six

Lt. Col. Jonathan Steinberg, the commander of the Nahal Brigade, in an undated photo (Israel Defense Forces)

Lt. Col. Jonathan Steinberg, the commander of Israel’s elite Nahal Brigade, was killed Saturday during a confrontation with a terrorist near Kerem Shalom. Steinberg, of Kibbutz Shomria, was one of the most senior officers to have been killed in combat in recent memory, Times of Israel reported. Steinberg studied at Horev High School and Ma’ale Eliyahu Yeshiva in Tel Aviv. He enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces in 2000 and rose through the ranks, becoming commander of the brigade in May. He is survived by his wife and six children.

A daughter of soccer royalty

May Naim and her grandfather, Shlomo Sharaf (Courtesy)

Mai Naim, 22, the granddaughter of one of Israel’s most successful soccer coaches, was also among the more than 250 people killed by Hamas gunmen while attending the music festival near Kibbutz Reim. Friends said Naim decided only at the last minute to attend the festival; when gunmen overran the concert area, shooting into the crowd and grabbing as many hostages as they could, she sought shelter in nearby Kibbutz Be’eri but was pursued and gunned down. Her grandfather Shlomo Sharaf coached Maccabi Haifa to three championships and was manager of Israel’s national soccer team from 1992-1999.

Israel’s national Football Association issued a statement: “In these sad, painful days, moments that the mind and soul find difficult to contain, we wish to offer our condolences to the families of those killed, wish the injured a speedy recovery and emphasize the commitment of the Football Association to take an active and central part in any assistance required and in any way possible to bring comfort to a wounded and pain-filled country.”

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The post Faces of Israel’s fallen: Soldiers, a peace activist, a family of 5 and more appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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The BBC Documentary That Paints Every Israeli as an Extremist

The Jewish community of Beit El in Judea and Samaria. Photo: Yaakov via Wikimedia Commons.

Louis Theroux first visited the West Bank in 2011 to film a documentary titled Louis and the Ultra-Zionists, part of his long-running series for the BBC. Back then, he at least seemed to possess a trace of journalistic curiosity. Even the title signaled a degree of editorial caution — framing his subjects as a small, ideological fringe rather than representative of Israeli society as a whole.

At the time, Theroux made an effort to clarify that he was profiling a narrow segment of Israelis. He showed legally purchased Jewish homes (sold by Arab landowners, no less) and acknowledged the regular — and at times deadly — terror attacks faced by Israeli civilians living in the area, often requiring military protection. There was condescension, certainly. But there was also context.

Fast-forward to 2024, and the curiosity is gone — though the bemused, slightly smug expression remains. His new BBC documentary, Louis and the Settlers, drops even the soft qualifiers. No “ultra.” No nuance. Just “settlers.” And with that, Theroux makes it clear: half a million Israelis living in the West Bank are one and the same — extremists who, we’re told, want every last Palestinian removed from the land.

This time, the documentary doesn’t begin with questions. It begins with conclusions. And Theroux uses a brief, unrepresentative snapshot of life in the West Bank to draw sweeping indictments of the entire Israeli state.

The message is unmistakable: Israel is the problem. Settlers are the villains. And Palestinians are passive, blameless victims of a colonial project.

Within the opening minutes, Theroux plants his ideological flag. He refers to the West Bank as “Palestinian territory” and describes every Israeli community within it as illegal under international law — a sharp departure from his more qualified approach 14 years earlier.

And while his personal views seep in throughout the film, they become crystal clear during one exchange at a checkpoint, where an Israeli soldier casually refers to their location as “Israel.” Theroux shoots back: “We’re not in Israel, are we?”

And just like that, the BBC and Louis Theroux have redrawn Israel’s borders. No Knesset debate needed.

Erasing History to Blame the Massacre

The timing of this return trip is no accident. The film comes in the shadow of the October 7 Hamas massacres — the day 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered, families were burned alive in their homes, and children were dragged into Gaza. And yet, Theroux barely mentions it.

The few passing references to October 7 serve not to inform the audience — but to imply that Israel may be exploiting its own dead to justify further expansion. It’s not an investigation. It’s an accusation. And it allows him to skip over thousands of years of Jewish history in order to frame the current war in Gaza as a convenient cover story for Israeli “aggression.”

Take Hebron, for example. Theroux tells viewers that “in 1968, the year after [the West Bank] was occupied by Israel, a community of Jewish settlers moved in illegally. They now number some 700.” He fails to mention that in 1895 — decades before the modern state of Israel existed — Hebron had a Jewish population of 1,429.

Jews have lived in Hebron since antiquity — it’s where, according to Jewish tradition, Abraham purchased the Cave of the Patriarchs. Modern records date the community back centuries, despite discrimination under Ottoman rule and bans on Jewish prayer at holy sites. In 1929, Arab rioters carried out a massacre, wiping out Hebron’s Jewish population. Dozens were murdered; the rest were expelled. Under Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967, Jews were banned from the city entirely. When they returned after the Six-Day War — not as colonists, but as a displaced community coming home — Theroux picks up the story there and calls it “illegal.”

On the Six-Day War itself, Theroux offers no context. No mention of the Arab armies preparing to destroy Israel. No mention of Israel’s preemptive strike against an existential threat.

According to The Settlers, Israel simply “occupied” — full stop.

Palestinian Terrorism? Not Even a Footnote.

Theroux visits Evyatar, a small Jewish community near the Palestinian town of Beita, and uses it as a stand-in for the entire West Bank. Beita is depicted as a symbol of peaceful resistance: a proud, ancient Palestinian village standing firm against violent settlers backed by IDF soldiers.

It’s a neat story. Too neat. Because missing from the story are years of organized, violent riots from Beita — complete with Molotov cocktails, burning Stars of David, and Nazi swastikas. All carefully omitted to preserve the narrative: Palestinians peaceful, settlers aggressive. Facts that don’t fit? Left on the cutting room floor.

Meanwhile, Israeli nationalism is treated as something sinister and unsettling — a moral aberration to be examined. The notion that Jews might want sovereignty or security is met with thinly veiled suspicion. Yet Hamas’ goal of a Jew-free Palestine, explicitly laid out in its charter, is never mentioned. Nor is the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” policy, which literally incentivizes terrorism by rewarding those who murder Israelis — including women and children.

These aren’t fringe details. They’re central to understanding the region. And Theroux knows it. He just doesn’t care.

The BBC’s Complicity

That The Settlers aired on the BBC — a publicly funded broadcaster once seen as a gold standard of global journalism — says plenty. Not just about Louis Theroux’s agenda, but about the institutional direction of the BBC itself. This wasn’t a rogue filmmaker sneaking bias past the editors. This was bias built into the foundation — signed off, packaged, and broadcast under the banner of credibility.

There is, of course, no problem with scrutinizing Israeli policy, and no issue with questioning the settlement enterprise or highlighting the tensions in the West Bank. But journalism — real journalism — demands context. It demands precision. It demands at least a passing familiarity with the full scope of the story.

Theroux offers none of that. He arrives with a predetermined script and casts his roles accordingly: Hero. Villain. Victim. Oppressor. And when reality refuses to cooperate? It’s left out.

Louis Theroux didn’t return to Israel to understand it. He returned to flatten it. To reduce its complexity to a morality play — and to ensure everyone knows the antagonist is.

The Settlers isn’t a documentary. It’s a hit piece. And the BBC handed him the camera — then applauded the performance.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

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Indian Army Kills Islamist Terrorist Linked to 2002 Murder of Jewish-American Journalist Daniel Pearl

Jewish-American Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by Islamist terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. Photo: Screenshot

The Indian government announced on Thursday that its military forces had killed “Pakistan’s most wanted terrorist,” who was connected to the 2002 murder of Jewish-American Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl.

On Wednesday, India launched “Operation Sindoor,” which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claims is targeted at dismantling “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The operation came after Pakistani terrorists killed 26 Hindu tourists in Kashmir last month amid escalating tensions between the two countries.

In a post on X, the BJP confirmed that during this week’s operation, the Indian army killed Islamist terrorist Abdul Rauf Azhar, who was involved in numerous terrorism plots, including the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight, the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament, and the 2016 Pathankot Air Force base attack.

Azhar’s involvement in the 1999 hijacking led to the release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born al-Qaeda member with close ties to Pakistan’s intelligence services, who later was involved in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of 38-year-old Pearl, who was covering the war on terror as a journalist when he was abducted.

In a statement on X, Pearl’s father, Judea, addressed initial reports regarding Azhar’s death and his connection to his son’s murder.

“I want to clarify: Azhar was a Pakistani extremist and leader of the terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed. While his group was not directly involved in the plot to abduct Danny, it was indirectly responsible. Azhar orchestrated the hijacking that led to the release of Omar Sheikh — the man who lured Danny into captivity,” he said.

In 2002, the Jewish-American journalist was abducted and killed by a group of Islamist terrorists connected to Azhar’s militant network, which had ties to al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terror group aiming to separate Kashmir from India and incorporate it into Pakistan.

On Jan. 27, 2002, an email was sent to several Pakistani and US media organizations, which included several photos, stating that Pearl was being held in “inhumane” conditions to protest the US treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners in Cuba. Photo: Screenshot

Originally stationed in New Delhi as the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, Pearl later moved to Pakistan to investigate terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City.

After kidnapping Pearl at a restaurant in Karachi, southern Pakistan, the Islamist terrorists, who identified themselves as the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, accused him of being an Israeli spy and sent the United States a list of demands for his release.

However, Washington did not meet their demands, and Pearl was ultimately executed after being held captive for five weeks.

His wife, Mariane Pearl, gave birth to a baby boy, Adam D. Pearl, in Paris later that year. On the Daniel Pearl Foundation website, she said, “Adam’s birth rekindles the joy, love, and humanity that Danny radiated wherever he went.”

The post Indian Army Kills Islamist Terrorist Linked to 2002 Murder of Jewish-American Journalist Daniel Pearl first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Jewish Jewelry Shop Owners Brutally Assaulted in Tunisia Days Before Annual Pilgrimage

A Jewish jewelry shop owner in Djerba, Tunisia, was brutally attacked by a man wielding a machete. Photo: Screenshot

A Jewish jewelry shop owner in Djerba, Tunisia, was brutally attacked by a man wielding a machete just days before the Tunisian island was set to host its annual Jewish pilgrimage, which is expected to draw thousands of visitors.

On Wednesday morning, two Jewish men — owners of a jewelry shop in the center of the island, located off Tunisia’s southeast coast — were physically assaulted by a man carrying a large knife.

Although the attack was halted when one of them screamed — alerting members of the local Jewish community who subdued the assailant — one of them was left severely injured.

According to local media reports, the attacker had surveyed the island the day before, visiting several stores to identify those owned by Jews. Local police arrested him shortly following the assault.

After the attack, one of the owners was admitted to the hospital with severe injuries. The 50-year-old Jewish man had his fingers severed during the assault and underwent surgery to reattach them.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the attack and expressed his wishes for a swift recovery to the victims.

“This attack comes two years after the previous deadly assault that claimed Jewish lives and the lives of security personnel during the Lag BaOmer celebration,” the top Israeli diplomat wrote in a post on X.

“I call on the Tunisian authorities to take all necessary measures to protect the Jewish community,” Saar continued.

Djerba is home to the majority of Tunisia’s Jewish community, numbering about 2,000 people, and is also where the renowned El Ghriba Synagogue, one of North Africa’s oldest synagogues, is located.

The attack comes just a week before Jewish pilgrims are expected to arrive on the island for the Lag B’Omer holiday, when thousands gather annually for three days of festivities. The annual pilgrimage to El Ghriba Synagogue, scheduled for May 15 and 16 this year, draws visitors from around the world.

The synagogue has been targeted in multiple terrorist attacks over the years, including in 1985, 2002, and 2023.

Two years ago, a shooting at the synagogue claimed the lives of two Jewish cousins and three police officers. Aviel Hadad, a 30-year-old Israeli goldsmith, and Ben Hadad, a 42-year-old Frenchman who had traveled to join the festivities, were among the victims.

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