Thousands of mourners gathered at Kiryat Shaul Military Cemetery in Tel Aviv on Tuesday to bid their final farewells to Col. Asaf Hamami. His body was returned from Gaza by Hamas on Sunday night as part of the ceasefire agreement.
Hamami, who leaves behind a wife, three children, parents, and a brother, was the highest-ranking IDF officer to be taken hostage during the October 7 massacre. At least two other Colonels were killed during the massacre, but their remains were not taken into the strip.
Among those present were President Isaac Herzog, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, former defense ministers Yoav Gallant, and Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, former IDF chiefs of staff Herzi Halevi, Gadi Eisenkot, and Aviv Kohavi, and Gal Hirsch, the coordinator for hostages and missing persons.
Many attendees, who followed the funeral procession from Rosh Ha’ayin, arrived holding Israeli flags in tribute.
After Hamami’s father recited kaddish, the burial ceremony commenced with a recording of Hamami’s last words, “We are at war,” which he was the first to declare.
Hamami, along with two of his soldiers, went to Kibbutz Nirim on October 7, 2023, and saved many lives before being killed.
“Hamami left behind a legacy: Be good; be Hamami,” the introductory speaker said at the funeral ceremony.
Singer Yuval Dayan performed “Exactly Like the Moon.”
Eyal Zamir eulogizes Col. Asaf Hamami
In his eulogy, Herzog said: “Dear and beloved Asaf, you returned to us after more than two years in the hands of the murderers. More than two years since that terrible morning when you fell, the morning when you declared over the radio, as we just heard, calmly and chillingly amid the slaughter, destruction, and chaos outside, ‘Here is the commander declaring war.’
“With clarity and without fear, you immediately understood that this was war, and, as always, you were the first to arrive, to charge forward, to engage the enemy. You fought with all your might, courageously, side by side with your soldiers, Tomer and Kiril, may their memory be a blessing, to save the lives of the residents of Kibbutz Nirim and all of the Western Negev. You fell with them in a heroic battle of light against darkness.
“Last Friday, I visited Kibbutz Nirim, where we marked the return of many of its residents. We stood there, in silence and tears, near the place where you, Tomer, and Kiril fell. I thought to myself how happy you would be to know they made it home. I thought to myself, if only you knew that you won the battle.
“This is exactly what you fought for: home, for everything you believed in, for everything you loved so much. For this land, for this country, for its people, for little Alon who stayed behind in the division’s command center, for your beloved Sapir, for Ele, Arbel, and all the young children, siblings, mothers, and fathers, for the residents of Nirim and the entire State of Israel,” Herzog said.
In his eulogy, Zamir said: “Hamami, I have kept your last photo with me for two years. I ran after you in the Givati training field, charging together toward a target on the horizon, as generations of soldiers who looked up to you did. Like your command post did on the morning of October 7, ready to charge with you against any enemy, fighting to the last.
“We are at war; everything is fine,” you declared over the radio, the first to understand the situation and act, mobilizing a whole sector for action in the face of the nightmare that befell Israel.
“You said to your soldiers, ‘We are at war, and everything is fine’ – a perfect blend of courage and calm in the most difficult moments on the battlefield, until the last drop of blood. You led the battle, commanding from the front, embodying the very spirit of the IDF.
“Dozens of terrorists who faced your strength, Hamami, and thousands of others who followed, understood that this war would end with their defeat, from the military power they encountered. You, Hamami, an Israeli commander who comes from a lineage of commanders, have origins that trace back to commanders like Dudu Alon.
“You and the hundreds of commanders we have lost in this war, who led from the front without fear, have taught the enemy time and again that they will never taste the victory of war; the victory we achieved on every front we fought on,” Zamir said.
In her eulogy, Clara Hamami, Asaf’s mother, said: “My firstborn, the hero of Israel who returned home today, but not to the embrace of your mother or the embrace of your father and not the embrace of your brother, Eitan.
“But you returned to eternal rest in the homeland you loved, where you fell in battle. There are moments when time stops, the heart listens before the mind can understand, moments when reality and pain meet, the heart whispers softly, ‘My Asaf.’ You came home after two long years of waiting, two years of hope, of silence.”