David Tahar greets us at the door of his sister’s apartment in Jerusalem. He offers coffee and a comfortable place to sit in the winter sun by the open kitchen window.
We are here to speak about his son, Sgt. Adir Tahar, a sniper in the Golani Brigade’s Unit 13 who served on a base near the Erez crossing on the northern Gaza Strip border.
David Tahar's pride in his son is clear. His army hat "never leaves my head," says Tahar.
But clear too is the pain in David Tahar's eyes. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists infiltrated his son’s base. They beheaded 19-year-old Sgt. Adir Tahar and stole his head back to the Gaza Strip. And then they attempted to ransom it.
The terrorists filmed and published video footage of their attack on the base, including of Adir Tahar’s headless corpse. The footage has been made available to The Media Line, although we will not be publishing it, in accordance with David Tahar’s wishes.
The following is The Media Line’s conversation with David Tahar about his son.
The Media Line: David, thank you so much for sitting and speaking with us today. Let’s start with Adir. Tell us about him.
David Tahar: Wow. Adir was 19 years old. A very smart boy. A modest and responsible boy. He was loved by his friends and he had plans for the next decade after the army. He knew what he wanted to do. He was a boy who could do anything he wanted. That’s Adir.
He was a brother to three siblings, Oz, Sagi and Sapir. He was the middle child who basically connected the other siblings. Adir was someone who loved to help others. A boy who connected between the weak and the strong. He was very loved by his friends and teachers and his friends' parents. Until today we see this. He was a special boy.
TML: Tell me a story about Adir that sticks in your mind.
DT: Adir, around third or fourth grade, was learning in Gilo, where we were living. One day he came home, and he had a friend who had a hard home life. Adir decided he wanted to adopt him. So Adir came to me and his mother saying, "I want to adopt my friend." I thought he didn’t understand what he was saying. What’s adoption? It’s not buying a car. It’s a big thing. But Adir said he understood.
He brought us the phone numbers and told us to speak to the authorities and begin to adopt the boy. Again, we’re talking about a small child of third or fourth grade. He’s not a big kid. But he knew what he wanted. He even drove us to speak with the adoption agency in order to adopt the boy, and it turned out that there was already a family in the process. So I told him, "Adir, there’s already a family trying to adopt him. But if they don’t, then we will."
The family did adopt him, but we ensured they would bring the boy to Jerusalem where the boys could meet, and Adir could see the boy with the new family.
But this is just one example that shows how even at a young age, Adir was generous and helpful in strengthening the weak. That’s Adir.
TML: You said he had plans 10 years ahead. What were they?
DT: He planned a big trip for after the army with his friend Tomer and a few others. They wanted to go to South America, and even to his uncle in Los Angeles in order to visit and see it, and then to work with computers, investments, and real estate. That’s what interested him. He had a lot of plans. To my great misfortune, they were all erased on October 7.
TML: Let’s move on to October 7 then. What happened?
DT: On October 6, Adir was on guard duty until about 1 am Saturday. The guard shift change came but apparently Adir stayed with the new guard until about 3 am as it was a pretty remote area of the base. He stayed until about 3 am, and then he went back to his room where he spoke to his girlfriend, Shaked, on the phone until about 4:30. At 4:30, he went to sleep, and then around 6 am he was awakened because there were reports of infiltration and incoming rockets. Then he went to sleep until about 6 am, when he was awakened to reports of an infiltration.
The guy who woke him up was apparently from the division commander's unit and at that point all the soldiers on base were ordered to gather in a certain place. At that meeting, it was explained that there was an infiltration of terrorists, and that they needed to gather all their gear. So he went back to his room to gather all his gear, but as he left the room, he understood that there were terrorist infiltrators, and he went into a ‘war mode.’
After the unit met back for the second time, the division commander and some four other soldiers went into the onslaught. They knew there was an infiltration, but they didn’t know how big it was. So the division commander went with just the four soldiers.
After a few minutes, Adir called his commanding officer, Roey Weiser, may he rest in peace, and he asked for reinforcements because two of the soldiers who were with him had already fallen in battle.
So Roey took Adir and another two soldiers and they went into the fight to help the division commander. I can tell you that in this fight, they killed a not-insignificant number of terrorists. But they were met with many tens of terrorists.
According to the IDF investigations, hundreds of terrorists entered the Erez outpost. Some were the Nukhba forces, and some were the so-called “uninvolved civilians” people keep referring to.
In that same fight, Adir and his comrades killed many. But unfortunately they were also killed: Adir, Sgt. Ariel Erez, Staff Sgt. Roey Weiser, and Staff Sgt. Daniel Moshe Danino.
In that same fight, [Hamas] apparently fired an RPG at Adir, as well as at least three grenades towards him and his comrades who fought there. I can also say that from the moment Adir fell, the terrorists had greater ability to enter the base. Those soldiers who fought with Adir basically protected the whole base and all the soldiers and civilians who were there. But the moment they fell, the terrorists infiltrated deeper.
After Adir fell, we were able to understand that the barbaric terrorists defiled Adir’s body. They tore his head off as they opened fire with their AK-47s at his neck and shoulders. And from there, they took his head and put it into a bag, which they took back with them to Gaza.
TML: How was Adir’s body identified?
DT: I can tell you that in the first few days, I went through all the footage that Hamas published on Telegram, which is mostly GoPro footage that they wore themselves as they entered IDF bases, Israeli communities and kibbutzim.
In one of the videos, I saw two soldiers on the ground with two dead terrorists as well. One of the soldiers was headless. The head lay beside him.
After the shiva [the seven-day mourning period], I entered the outpost and I walked through Adiri’s battle, through his final footsteps. And based on the photos I had and photographed, I can say for certain that the video I saw on Telegram showed Adir. And you can see a soldier’s corpse which is on the ground without a head, the helmet next to it too.
And I know for certain that it’s Adir, not only because of markings that match the location but also because of the markings that match between the body [in the Hamas video] and the body I buried.
I buried my son without his head.
TML: Why was it important to you to walk in Adir’s final footsteps?
DT: As a father I can say that it was important, and it’s still important to me to know everything that Adir went through at that time, and for so many reasons.
First, to feel what Adir felt and to understand what he went through in his final moments. To try to understand how a 19-year-old boy with his whole life in front of him – I don’t even know if he ever got in a fight or went wild – but the future of our nation rests in the hands of boys like these. Boys who fight to protect me and you, to ensure that we can even have conversations like this. And there were many other kids like Adir. I call them kids because they’re generally just 19 or 20 years old.
And it was important to me also to see and feel what my son went through, and to understand from where his heroism was drawn, to fight such barbarism and terrorists whose only desire was to injure, murder, kill, and rape.
From where did he get his strength to not freeze in place?
So you ask me why it was important to me? It’s important to understand where his strength came from. And I can tell you that as I understand – from the testimonies of people who knew and served with him, as well as those who investigated his fight – I understand how heroic Adir and his comrades were, and how much they protected the bodies and souls of this nation and of everyone.
TML: What went through your mind as you followed his footsteps?
DT: In general, pain. Pain over what he had to endure. Distress over how he had to survive the screams of "Allahu akbar," and how he didn’t fear when bullets whistled past his head. How didn’t he fear when they threw grenades at him and he continued to fight? How didn’t he fear when they fired a rocket at him and he continued to shoot?
How does a 19-year-old boy not fear when a grenade is thrown at him, and he sees it but he continues to fight in spite of the knowledge that he’d be injured and likely die?
How could he not fear and how could he fight so that others could be saved, at the expense of his life?
That’s what went through my mind.
TML: What was the last conversation you had with Adir?
DT: We spoke on Friday before Sabbath. It was a normal conversation between a father and son before Sabbath. I told him to take care of himself. Adir was supposed to head out that Sunday for a course on drones.
And that’s actually part of what’s so sad, that had the attack come later, Adir may not have died.
But my conversation with Adir was a normal talk between father and son. "Take care of yourself. Have a good Sabbath. Dad loves you," a normal talk.
TML: Now, his head was taken, and you conducted an investigation. Walk me through that.
DT: On that Sabbath, I knew there was a war. I sent Adir a WhatsApp message around noon. He received it but didn’t read it. I could tell by the read-receipts. Then around 12:30, I started calling him. The phone rang but he didn’t answer.
For the rest of the day, I, his mother, siblings, friends, all tried to reach him. Sometimes the phone rang, sometimes it didn’t.
We all thought he was probably in a fight and couldn’t answer. Maybe even his phone was forgotten in some place.
Until Sunday we were on the phones with hospitals to see if Adir had arrived, if they knew anything, if they received some body or soldier they couldn’t identify. And on Sunday I drove to Barzilai Hospital, the closest to Adir’s outpost, where I started asking questions.
I also saw a soldier who I knew served with Adir. I asked him if he knew anything. After a very short conversation with him, I understood the situation was bad. But there was no evidence of anything. An officer saw me talking to this soldier and took the soldier aside to question him.
After a few hours, the commanders called me to a room and told me Adir had fallen. From there, I started to push to see the body. I had to see my son. They tried to prevent it. Only after they understood that I wouldn’t stop until I saw the body did they start to see the picture.
And after a few conversations with the commanders at Shura [the army base where mutilated bodies were taken for identification and processing] did I understand that Adir was missing a very important piece.
They tried to make it seem that maybe the grenades or rockets disfigured him and that’s why he was missing a piece. I started asking questions. Then I started going through the horrific Hamas videos on Telegram and I was able to see that Adir was missing his head.
On Tuesday morning – and I remind you that from Saturday I was chasing – in a conversation with a commander at Shura, I got word that Adir’s body had been received and that it was missing an important piece. He didn’t want to tell me that it was the head. But I asked, "Is it the legs, the belly, the hands?" and when I got to the head, I understood it was the head.
Tuesday night, I received Adir’s body at Mount Herzl [the military cemetery in Jerusalem] for burial. I then opened the casket and saw that Adir was headless.
After the burial, I started to ask and investigate where the head was. I agreed to myself that even if it was missing because of a grenade or a rocket, then there should be pieces that flew around and I was prepared for it. But when I didn’t get answers, I asked more questions.
At some point, after nearly two months, they told me that the head was taken by the terrorists. And about three weeks ago, I got a phone call from the commander for the wounded who told me about an operation conducted by a special operations unit, along with the armored corps.
And after the Shin Bet interrogated terrorists who were caught, they learned that one of them tried to sell the head, and that the terrorists were in Israeli custody.
So the Shin Bet gave a special order to these units to retrieve Adir’s head. The unit even took the terrorist in custody with them to Gaza, who led them to an ice cream store. And in a freezer, in a hand bag, along with tennis balls and some papers, was Adir’s head.
They took the prisoner out of fear that perhaps the bag might be booby-trapped. To our gratitude, if you can say such a thing in this situation, the unit was able to bring back what was left of the head.
It didn’t look like a head. It was mostly broken bones and jaws.
TML: What proof did you get from the Shin Bet, or IDF, that the head was for sale? Did you see any proof? Or is that just what they told you?
DT: The proof is not something I have that I can give you. But it’s been published and spoken of on TV. It’s not something that’s even questionable. It’s published in Israeli media, and most other media.
In investigations into the barbaric terrorists, we learned that Hamas essentially had several units with different orders. There were units ordered to behead. There were units for raping. There were units for murder. There were units for theft.
And in interrogations, they [the Hamas terrorists] said that for every IDF soldier’s head they bring back, they would be rewarded with a home and $10,000. It’s not something we made up, it’s something they said.
So that’s what it sounds like to me. I don’t think that I, as a bereaved father, need to try to explain that Hamas tried to sell [a head]. Because, just think, what use does a terrorist or an "uninvolved [Gazan] citizen," as people like to call them, what does he have to do with a soldier’s head? He’s already dead.
So what’s the idea behind beheading? And remember, he wasn’t beheaded with a knife. He was beheaded with gunfire. So what reason does a citizen or terrorist have to take a soldier's head, if not to prove to his commanders that he brought it, like in some barbaric movie. What reason does he have if not to prove to his commanders that he deserves a house and $10,000? Because that was the price.
TML: So what else is still important to you to know? What’s still missing from your knowledge about the situation?
DT: Today, I can say that with regard to Adir and his death, I still don’t understand everything about his final fight, despite the IDF’s and my own investigations … [but] what’s still missing to me is not regarding Adir. In this regard, I know about everything.
But I still have many questions about the days before October 7.
How could it be that a 19-year-old soldier can tell his parents, after just two months on the Gaza border, that something big is going to happen, and the IDF doesn’t know about it?
I don’t understand how everyone raised alarms, everyone. The observers [on the border], the commanders in the area, people in intelligence, many people said it. My son also said that to me. He sat here at the table on Sabbath and I asked him how things are going. And he told me “Dad, something big is going to happen, we just don’t know when.”
How can it be that a soldier who was serving for just two months after finishing his graduation ceremony can feel something big is going to happen, and the IDF didn’t know?
So there are many questions, but not for right now. Right now we’re at war. Right now I prefer not to ask. But I can promise that when the war ends, I will ask these questions to everyone who needs to answer to them.
Just like I didn’t leave things alone or rest until we retrieved Adir’s head, I won’t rest until I get these answers. And I think we need these answers for our children who fell, and who protected our nation with their lives.
At the very least, they deserve answers on who is responsible for this negligence. Because it’s truly negligence.
TML: And what are your thoughts about the war and for the future?
DT: I think we’re in a war for our existence. This war was forced upon us. And we must clean this region. It cannot be that Gaza received so much money, hundreds of billions of dollars, and yet they chose to build tunnels in order to murder me and you and all of Israel, instead of investing in the Gazan nation, as they call it. They chose instead to murder, and build tunnels in order to murder.
So as a citizen, not as a bereaved father, as a citizen, when I think about all the money that went into Gaza, the Gazan nation, to the so-called “uninvolved citizens,” the amount of money they received and which they decided to spend on an underground city in order to murder me and you, it says everything I need to know about the “uninvolved citizens.”
As for what I think Israel needs to do, I think Israel and its leaders must, and they’re not doing anyone any favors, they owe it to the soldiers who fell including my son, and to the citizens of Israel as well as to the residents of the Gaza periphery and within the state, they must make it so that Israel can exist without fear that in a day or so there will be another October 7.
The nation of Israel, as a sovereign nation, must ensure that its citizens and nation can live without fear. If that means to erase Gaza, then erase Gaza. And if there are citizens who are “uninvolved,” which I don’t believe because of the GoPro and Nukhba footage which shows even elderly people on crutches entering to steal and murder and rape citizens, even little kids of 8 or9, “uninvolved,” who came to kidnap little Jewish children ... so what “uninvolved citizens” are we talking about?
TML: And what about your other children who are younger than Adir?
DT: There’s one son, Sagi, who is 18 years old, and he wants to join a highly desirable [IDF] unit. So you’re asking me, as a father, what will I do?
I can tell you as a citizen of this country, as well as a bereaved father, that if my son Sagi wants to be in this special unit, then I will support him and strengthen him. Because we understand that we have no other nation.
And we must fight for our nation and for our country. And if that means that Sagi will go and fight, then that’s what will happen. Because that’s what Sagi wants. And this is in the understanding that if Sagi doesn’t do it, and I don’t do it, and you don’t do it, who will do it?
So we don’t have another country or nation. And we must protect it, even with this heavy price.
TML: What message do you think the world needs to know that it’s missing?
DT: The message is very clear and simple. Please watch the Hamas terrorists’ GoPro videos that they filmed on October 7 when they infiltrated Israel. And understand what kind of barbarism the nation and country of Israel is fighting against.
I can tell you that I saw on these barbarians’ Telegram, a video in which they pulled out a baby from a pregnant woman’s belly, after putting cellotape over her mouth so she wouldn’t scream. How they cut off her breasts. How they cut open her belly while she was still alive, pulled out the baby, and murdered the baby.
So my message to the world, is to see what Israel is dealing with. To bury one’s head in the sand like an ostrich is easy. But today it’s happening to us. Tomorrow it’ll happen to you.
Don’t wait for the day when October 7 arrives in the US, Paris, or Belgium. Understand it now. Don’t wait. It happens. It happened. And it will happen to you too if you don’t pull your head out of the sand.
There are many people who don’t believe it happened. Here’s a secret. Even here there are Arab Knesset members who say, "There were no rapes, because we didn’t see them.” So, we understand that there are people who are not prepared to accept this truth.
But when you look at your enemy, who filmed it, or listen to the phone call of the same terrorist who called his parents, proud of how he murdered 10 Jews, if that’s not proof of the barbarism which we’re dealing with, I’m not sure what more proof we need.
We have in one Sabbath over 1,400 dead. Tell the soldiers, and the Nova festival-goers who went to go dance and listen to music, young people who went to enjoy life when barbaric terrorists came to murder and rape them. How can you rape people in the middle of a military operation? Think of how much hate they have.
TML: Well, to finish things up, tell me about the foundation you’re building in Adir’s memory.
DT: “Adir Bamarom” [Adir in Heaven]. We are trying to continue Adir’s legacy. Adir would unite and strengthen at-risk youths. What we are doing now is we’re trying to establish a center called Adir Bamarom, which is for at-risk youths. It’s a place where they can go and learn, physically and spiritually. It’ll be a warm place to receive them, as opposed to them going and getting into trouble.
It’ll be a place to strengthen them and teach them to give back to society in that they’ll go to the army and afterwards they’ll come back and help the next generation of at-risk youths.
And it will be a center that with, God’s help, will be established in Gilo, in Jerusalem, where lone soldiers can also come to unite physically and spiritually. And they can come to learn who Adir was, about his fighting spirit, about who he was as a person, and to teach what the nation of Israel stands for.
So we are asking for donations in order to establish the center, and continue his legacy.
TML: Thank you, David.
DT: Thank you. To contibute to The Jerusalem Great Synagogue Emergency Israel Appeal please visit: https://www.charidy.com/ezra23