‘Afraid of nothing, only worried about Mom’: Remembering Staff Sgt. Eliya Hilel
Staff Sgt. Eliya Hilel, a soldier and squad commander in the Kfir Brigade’s Nahshon Battalion who was killed in a ramming attack at a checkpoint near Nablus on May 29, 2024, was a mischievous child whose smile always seemed to come just before his next prank.
Eliya, the eldest son of Hanna and Dror and older brother to Ido, Yinon Tidhar and Tahel, grew up in the community of Tel Zion in the Binyamin region. He attended Haredi schools and later studied at a yeshiva in Jerusalem. “Who knew he would grow up to become such a hero, a hero of Israel?” his mother, Hanna, says.
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His path to military service was clear from an early age. Every Purim, Eliya dressed up as a soldier. “It didn’t matter what kind of soldier or what color beret,” Hanna recalls. “What mattered was being dressed as a combat soldier.” When he reached enlistment age, he told his parents one night, “I want to enlist in the IDF.”
Soon afterward, he left the yeshiva and spent two years at the Hosen pre-military academy in Pdu’el. In March 2023, he enlisted in the Kfir Brigade.
A powerful quiet
Those closest to Eliya say he had two seemingly contradictory qualities from an early age. “On the one hand, there was a quietness about him, and it wasn’t an ordinary quiet but a powerful one,” Hanna says. “You couldn’t help but notice him. Even when he walked into a crowded room, people noticed him immediately, without him saying a word.”
On the other hand, his mother says, there was his appetite for life. “Eliya loved hiking in nature, and there were times when he would disappear from home for hours. He loved swimming in the sea, listening to music, studying Torah, sitting with friends and, in general, living life to the fullest.”
Although he loved being outdoors and spending time with friends, Eliya also loved being at home with his family. He was a caring and protective older brother to his younger siblings. “He gave all of us a sense of calm and security,” Hanna says. “When he was home, I knew everything would be OK.”
He brought that same attentiveness with him to the pre-military academy. His friends say he noticed small things everyone else missed and acted on them.
When a friend arrived for Shabbat and discovered there was no bed available, Eliya gave him his own. When another friend was on a bus headed to the academy, Eliya found out when he would arrive and waited for him at the stop with a car so he would not have to walk or hitchhike.
Whenever one of the guys got stressed, Eliya would tell him to look behind him, and then, smiling, he would say: “See? Nobody’s chasing you. What are you rushing for? Everything’s fine.”
“He was a sweet kid,” says Aharon Sofer, who was one of his instructors at the academy. “He always volunteered to help others, contribute and make everyone feel comfortable. There wasn’t anything he refused to do at the academy, and we all knew we could trust him completely.”
The company commander’s connector
In March 2023, Eliya enlisted in the Kfir Brigade’s Nahshon Battalion. During training, he was chosen to serve as the radio operator for his company commander, Roy, a role that meant staying at the commander’s side at all times, both on base and in the field.
Roy was commanding 180 soldiers and 30 officers and commanders at the time. Amid that pressure, Eliya became far more to him than a connector. “We were like brothers. Sometimes I was his older brother and sometimes Eliya was mine,” Roy says. “He was the one who kept me going during periods of stress and heavy pressure.”
On the night Yom Kippur ended that year, Eliya met Hadas while waiting in line for shawarma in Hadera. They went to the beach together and talked for hours. After just a few dates, Hadas sensed that there was something special about him. “He didn’t need to say much to lead,” she says. “People were drawn to him because of his humility.”
Two weeks later, the war broke out. Eliya was spending that Saturday on leave at the pre-military academy. When he realized what was happening in southern Israel, he prepared to head there on his own. Roy, realizing what Eliya intended to do, asked him to wait. The two then traveled to the Gaza border area and joined the rest of the company in combat.
In the first days of the war, they fought in Kibbutz Be’eri, evacuating residents from their homes and helping clear the community of terrorists. Amid the horrific scenes there, Roy recalls, it was the young soldier Eliya who gave strength to his commander.
At the same time, Eliya’s relationship with Hadas deepened during the weeks of fighting. Though he was in the field and she was in Hadera, he never missed a call from her. “He taught me that there’s no such thing as excuses,” she says.
‘Let me keep doing the job’
Shortly after the fighting in the Gaza border communities, Eliya began a squad commanders’ course. Midway through the course, however, he and his comrades were sent into combat in the Gaza Strip.
On the evening before the soldiers entered Gaza, as they said goodbye to their families, Ido asked his brother if he was afraid. “I’m not afraid of anything. I’m only worried about Mom,” Eliya replied. Then, turning to Ido, a yeshiva student, he added: “You hold on to the Gemara, I’ll hold the rifle, and pray for us.”
One day, Eliya’s unit entered a building in Khan Younis. Shortly afterward, an explosive device detonated. Three of the soldiers with him, Inon Itzhak, Dolev Malca and Afik Tery, were killed in the blast.
Eliya was lightly wounded but immediately took command of the scene and directed the evacuation of the wounded and the dead. During a final sweep of the building, he suddenly spotted his close friend Harel, who had been declared dead, and noticed that his abdomen was rising and falling.
Eliya immediately contacted the evacuation helicopter over the radio, asked the crew to wait for another critically wounded soldier and saved his friend’s life. When medics tried to evacuate Eliya as well, he refused. “Why are you evacuating me?” he said. “I’m not wounded. Let me keep doing the job.” Only after the rescue operation was complete did he agree to be taken to the hospital.
Around midday that Friday, Hanna received a call from an unfamiliar number. “Everything’s fine. I don’t understand why, but they’re taking me to the hospital,” Eliya told her calmly. “If you want, come to Shaare Zedek.” He did not want his mother to worry or spend Shabbat with him at the hospital, so he asked Hadas to stay with him instead.
While hospitalized, Eliya spoke with his commander, Roy, and told him, “I’m about to get out of the hospital and get back to the fighting.” Soon afterward, he was discharged and returned to the squad commanders’ course.
Later, when he spoke with his mother about what had happened in Khan Younis, he told her: “I was sure I was going to die. I couldn’t see anything, feel anything or hear anything.”
A second time that day
After completing the course, Eliya was appointed squad commander in Kfir’s 90th Battalion, which was deployed in the Nablus area. At the same time, he had already designed and purchased a ring for Hadas and was planning to propose the next time he came home on leave.
On May 29, 2024, Eliya was asked to return to the “Farm 6” checkpoint on the outskirts of Nablus, even though he had already manned the post earlier that day. He agreed without hesitation, and Diego, one of the soldiers closest to him, joined him. Eliya had spoken with Hadas about an hour earlier.
Then, at 9:30 p.m., as the two were securing the checkpoint, a terrorist drove into them, killing Eliya and Diego.
Hanna heard about the attack shortly afterward. She immediately called Eliya, but he did not answer. Hadas called too, again and again, but no one answered her calls either.
“And then there was a knock at the door,” Hanna recalls. “I looked through the peephole and saw them, several officers in uniform. To this day, I don’t remember opening the door for them.”
Eliya is survived by his parents, Hanna and Dror, his brothers Ido, Yinon and Tidhar, and his sister Tahel. After his death, Hanna gave Hadas the ring with which Eliya had planned to propose. Harel, the friend whose life Eliya saved in Khan Younis, was later married beneath a chuppah sewn in Eliya’s memory.
“He embodied a sense of mission, leadership and devotion to the Israeli flag,” Roy says. “I hope we can all strive to live as Eliya did.”
In his 20 years, Eliya accomplished what many people don't do in an entire lifetime, leaving behind a legacy of light that will never be extinguished.
Staff Sgt. Eliya Hilel, Kfir Brigade, fell on May 29, 2024. He was 20 years old.
May his memory be a blessing.
Staff Sergeant
Eliya Hilel