Sgt. Shay Levinson, 19, of the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion, from Givat Avni, was killed in action on October 7 and his body taken captive to Gaza.
Shay, a tank commander, was stationed at an IDF post near the Gaza border the morning of the attack. With the start of the onslaught, he was sent out in his tank with Sgt. Ofir Testa, Sgt. Ariel Eliyahu and Cpl. Ido Somech to fight against the invading Hamas gunmen.
Just before 7 a.m., the tank was hit by an anti-tank missile and Shay and Ariel were killed, with Shay’s body falling from the tank in the attack. Ofir was killed fighting later in the day, while only Ido ultimately survived.
Shay’s body was taken captive to Gaza and for several months his family did not know of his fate. On January 21, 2024, the IDF declared based on intelligence that he had been killed on October 7 and his body taken hostage.
His body was retrieved by IDF troops from Gaza on June 21, 2025 alongside slain hostages Yonatan Samerano and Ofra Keidar.
He was buried on June 24, 2025, in Givat Avni. He is survived by his parents, Shlomit and Kochav, and his siblings Ben and Mika.
The middle child, Shay spent his earliest years in Karkur and Hadera before his family settled in Givat Avni, a small town near Tiberias, when he was 3, according to an IDF obituary.
He attended a local elementary school, and for high school he went to the Kadoorie Agricultural High School in the Lower Galilee, where he focused his studies on Arabic and agriculture.
Shay was sporty from a young age, first with basketball – unsurprising due to his height – and later volleyball, which he played with a local team which won the 2021 national championship. He loved to listen to music, travel, cook and spend time with his friends, his loved ones said.
Shay believed strongly in coexistence and equality, his family said, always seeking to build bridges, in particular between Jews and Arabs. In 2021 his classmates created a film highlighting his efforts.
Though he could have enlisted in the IDF on an athletic track which allowed him to keep playing volleyball, Shay instead chose to pursue a combat role, his family said. He enlisted in August 2022, joining the Armored Brigade, and after his initial training he then trained to be a tank commander.
His brother, Ben, said at a memorial event that he and his siblings were raised “to be open minded, to be tolerant, to accept the differences between people. We both were soldiers of hope, we had the same positive view of coexistence and peace between Arabs and Jews.”
“Shay was the kindest person I knew, the best brother I could have asked for Mika and me,” Ben added. “The glue that kept his group of friends together. He was loved by everyone – friends, teachers, family, teammates. Even people who just knew his name and nothing else.”
“Shay in Hebrew means ‘gift,’ and he truly was like it – a gift that the world has lost.”
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