Nissim was born in 1930 in Istanbul to Eliyahu and Rachel. He completed grade school, to find himself, at bar mitzva age in 1943, at the height of World War II. The Axis powers seemed to have the advantage. Precisely at this moment, the Shushan family abandoned neutral Turkey, which was relatively safe, to make aliyah, even as Field Marshal Rommel’s threatened the Promised Land from the southwest. The family settled in the relatively new HaTikvah neighborhood, adjacent to Tel Aviv but part of the municipality of the Arab town of Jaffa.

Two years later, the war ended, and the Mandatory authorities were committed to the infamous White Paper. The Yishuv, following the IZL, joined Lehi’s already five-year-long fight against the British. Among the fighters was Nissim, known now as Ben-Eliyahu. Fifteen-year-old Nissim was, like other youths, involved in putting up posters and disseminating underground periodicals, such as HaMaas. He also was involved in surveillance and other activities. Two more years passed, and Nissim and his comrades saw victory: the British left.

The Partition Plan was not to Lehi’s taste, but the real opposition came from the Arabs, who began rioting and murdering the next day. Once the State was officially established on May 14,1948 seven foreign Arab militaries invaded the newborn nation the next day.

Nissim joined the IDF just a few days after the mass enlistment of Lehi members. He still ended up in the armored 8^th Brigade, under Yitzhak Sadeh, with most of them. He was assigned to the commando battalion, what would be Battalion 89 (then 81). He served in Company A under Yaakov Granek.

Nissim was among the brigade’s first fallen, along with five comrades. In Operation Danny, on July 11,1948 Nissim was injured in an Arab Legion counterattack. He died of his injuries five days later, on July 16,1948

Nissim was buried in the military section of Nahalat Yitzhak Cemetery in Tel Aviv.