UW Ph.D. graduate dies in Hamas attacks protecting neighbor and children, says uncle

Hayim Katsman, Ph.D., a former University of Washington (UW) graduate, was one of the Americans found dead after Hamas attacked Be’eri in Southern Israel on October 7.

Katsman, 32, was found dead in his apartment.

On Monday KIRO 7 spoke with his uncle, Abe Katsman, who said his nephew was helping his neighbor and her children before being killed.

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Hayim Katsman

“He was helping a neighbor, a very frightened neighbor woman, who I believe was in charge of two other neighbor children, I think one was just four months old and one was about three years old,” said Abe Katsman.

Abe Katsman said his nephew was trying to hide the woman when terrorists entered the room.

“The alarms had gone off already, the rockets were flying overhead, and in Israel when that happens, people go into their reinforced rooms, safe rooms, that are supposed to be pretty protective if the rockets hit nearby, you know a direct hit is one thing but if they hit nearby it should be able to withstand the shock and the shrapnel,” he said. “These rooms are not necessarily designed to keep people out so when the terrorists were going house to house and room to room looking for people to kill, his neighbor had called him over, this woman had called him over, he went in and he tried, he was trying to hide her, and within the safe room they hid in a closet.”

But the attackers found them.

“The terrorists blew open the door and found them in the closet but apparently, he was, I think, lying on top of her, protecting her, they opened fire, he was killed, she survived and they decided they were taking her to Gaza,” said Abe Katsman.

According to Abe Katsman, his nephew died selflessly protecting others.

“In a way, there’s a tiny bit of comfort here knowing that, that’s the way he went out which is very consistent with the way he, you know, lived. You talk about a selfless act, it doesn’t get much more than that,” he said.

He added that the entire situation is terrifying.

“It’s all horrifying and the barbarity of the people acting on the other side, again this isn’t a military operation this is outright terror looking to kill and maim,” he said. “It’s awful no matter which story, it all ends the same way.”

The death toll on both sides soared to around 1,500, with 11 Americans among the dead, according to CBS News.

“Saturday was the bloodiest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust,” said Abe Katsman. “Burying a child is bad enough, under these circumstances, this is just, just awful.”

Katsman’s mother, Hannah Katsman, said he received his Ph.D. from the UW’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies in 2021. Hayim’s mother told ABC News he was born in the U.S. and had been living on a kibbutz in Israel doing research. Katsman’s research focused on the “interrelations of religion and politics in the Middle East, focusing on Israel/Palestine,” according to UW’s website.

Hannah Katsman said she initially thought her son had been taken captive, according to ABC News, but she later learned he was killed when Hamas militants burst into his home and found him hiding with his neighbors in his closet. She learned one of the neighbors was released, while her son and a female neighbor were immediately shot and killed.

“I’ve been getting so many messages from people who worked with Hayim or who knew him, or who met him during their travels and how warm he was, how open,” Hannah Katsman told ABC News. “He was a very accepting person and a very loyal friend. He had a good sense of humor. He took things in stride.”

Abe Katsman had similar things to say about his nephew.

“He was a good kid and a very decent human being and a very caring person,” said Abe Katsman. “One of the things that he did was he gained the respect of people on the opposite side.”

Along with getting his doctorate, Abe Katsman said his nephew was also a “skilled auto mechanic, a more than adequate musician, and a horticulturist.”

In 2020, Katsman won the Baruch Kimmerling prize for best graduate paper, Association for Israel Studies, according to the UW.

The attack was launched on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kipper War that pitted Israel against Egypt and Syria. After the attack occurred in the early hours of the morning, where an estimated 2,200 rockets were fired toward southern and central Israel, Mohammed Deif, commander in chief of the Hamas’ military arm Al Qassam Brigades, released a video claiming responsibility for the attack.

“The Zionist colonial occupation occupied our Palestinian homeland and displaced our people, destroyed our towns and villages, committed hundreds of massacres against our people, killing children, women and elderly people and demolishing homes with their inhabitants inside in violation of all international norms, laws and human rights conventions,” Mohammed Deif said in a translation from the video.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated “fighter jets and helicopters, aircraft and artillery struck over 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip” Sunday night and Monday morning in a retaliatory attack, according to CBS News.

Israel formally declared war on Sunday.

“We here have known what Hamas is for a long time and now the rest of the world gets to see it and I hope the rest of the world pays attention because this is just so unfair,” said Abe Katsman.

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