Father of fallen soldier: Terrorist decapitated my son, tried to sell head for $10,000
David Tahar, whose son Adir was killed on Oct. 7, says captured terrorists revealed details enabling retrieval of missing head from Gaza; CNN shows separate decapitation video
A terrorist from the Gaza Strip decapitated an IDF soldier killed in fighting on October 7 and later tried to sell his head for $10,000, the soldier’s bereaved father revealed, adding that “by a miracle” it was eventually found by the army and returned to Israel for burial.
David Tahar revealed the mutilation of his son Cpl. Adir Tahar, 19, in an interview with Channel 14 on Wednesday.
Adir, stationed on a base near the Gaza border, was killed with other members of his Golani Brigade unit as they fought back against Hamas terrorists on October 7 during the terror group’s devastating assault on Israel that killed over 1,200 people.
David described his son as a “smart boy, talented and very modest.” On October 7, as some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists burst into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, Adir was among a group of 18 soldiers who went out to face what they knew were hundreds of terrorists, David said.
Adir was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade and three more grenades that were thrown at him.
The terrorists then cut off his son’s head and took it to Gaza, David said. Adir’s body was identified from his identity tags, DNA testing, and personal items in his pockets.
David discovered the mutilation minutes before Adir was due to be buried. The soldier’s remains were brought for interment at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem. David said he insisted he wanted to see his son’s body though IDF officials warned him it would be better if he didn’t look.
“A father needs to know everything about his children,” he explained to Channel 14.
Half an hour before the burial ceremony, when just he and his nephew were alone with the coffin, David opened it to look at his son.
“I understood exactly what I was burying,” David said. “I knew I was burying a boy without the essential part.”
David said that for two months he tried everything he could to find out where his son’s head was.
“It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t simple,” he said and recalled watching dozens of hours of videos from the Hamas massacres that were posted to social media. Eventually, he found a video showing his son’s body without his head.
Then, in December “a miracle” happened, he said.
Two terrorists who were captured by Israeli forces and interrogated by the Shin Bet security service revealed that one of them had tried to sell an IDF soldier’s head for $10,000 and gave details on where it could be found.
“That is just insane barbarism,” David said.
Orders were given for an elite unit, backed up by tanks, to enter a central Gaza location where they found the head in a bag inside a freezer in an ice cream store.
The severed head had also apparently been further abused, David said.
It was returned to Israel. DNA and dental records showed that it was Adir’s head and it was later buried.
Despite the terrible circumstances, David said it gave him peace of mind that Adir’s head was returned.
The Tahar family, from the Gilo neighborhood in Jerusalem, is now working to establish a neighborhood support center for endangered youth in honor of Adir. There is also a Torah scroll being written in his memory.
‘Sawing at the necks’
The revelation about Tahar’s mutilation came as CNN aired footage from October 7 that it said showed a terrorist “sawing at the necks of dead Israelis, evidence of beheadings.”
The US network said an unnamed Israeli source provided the CCTV footage from Kibbutz Nir Oz, which is censored and edited to highlight the use of the knife.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper showed the clip in his show “The Lead.”
“Evidence of beheadings, cementing an Israeli view that Hamas is now akin to jihadi groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS),” reporter Matthew Chance said in the CNN piece.
WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE
⚠️ Disturbing Content ⚠️
Footage obtained by @CNN shows a Hamas terrorist attempting to behead two Israeli victims in kibbutz Nir Oz.
A quarter of the 400 kibbutz residents were either murdered or abducted on October 7. pic.twitter.com/Zx7jS0LklG— Elad Simchayoff (@Elad_Si) January 17, 2024
The revelation about the abuse of Adir Tahar’s body and the CNN video add to mounting evidence of the widespread atrocities committed on October 7.
During the Hamas-led assault, terrorists overran communities and military posts, slaughtering those they found. Entire families were murdered as they huddled together in their homes. Women were gang-raped and then murdered. One eyewitness described to the Sunday Times seeing a woman defend herself against terrorists who were trying to gang-rape her at an outdoor music festival where 360 people were massacred. The attackers instead beheaded her with a shovel.
The terrorists also abducted more than 240 people who were taken as hostages to Gaza, where 132 are believed to remain in captivity.
In response to the attack, Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas, remove it from power, and free the hostages.
Israel has repeatedly said that the atrocities committed by Hamas show that it is a terror group on par with Islamic State and must be eradicated.
