Lt. Adir Gaory, 20: Achieved dream of joining elite IDF unit
Killed battling Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Re’im on October 7
Lt. Adir Gaory, 20, a soldier in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, from Jerusalem, was killed on October 7 while battling Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Re’im.
According to his loved ones, when the Hamas onslaught began, Adir was home on leave but headed immediately for the front lines with the start of the attack. There he joined up with a number of other soldiers, commanded by Maj. Ariel Ben Moshe, and together they headed into Kibbutz Re’im.
They fought there for several hours, going house by house rescuing hostages and killing terrorists. After a number of hours, Adir was ambushed by a terrorist lying in wait who shot and killed him on the spot. Ben Moshe was also killed that day in the fighting.
Adir was buried on October 12 on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. He is survived by his parents, Ruth and Hagay, and his younger sister, Efrat.
In his youth, Adir played for the Beitar Nordia Jerusalem soccer club when it was first established.
His coach in the youth department, Matan Francis, wrote online that “Adir was a wonderful kid, quiet, always with a small, shy smile. I can’t believe that he is no longer with us.”
Francis noted that he had to convince Adir to join the team and to come and “be a significant element in my team. Adir played with the number 5 on his back as a center-back and succeeded in stabilizing our team, and as I promised — he was a very significant element!”
Ofer Ayoubey, whose son was close friends with Adir, described him to the Kol Hair newspaper as “a wonderful kid, a pure soul.”
“At age 16, he decided that he would be a combat soldier in Sayeret Matkal,” said Ofer. “From that moment he became a fighter and brought all of his friends along with him. He did everything he could to reach this goal. On top of that, he was kind-hearted, a truly pure soul. We lost a kid of rare quality.”
Adir’s friend, Eden Elgrabli, described his loss on Instagram as “dreams that will never come true, goals that won’t be achieved.”
Adir, she wrote, had a “magnetic smile, a kind heart, was a good friend, ambitious, modest, successful, achieved everything he wanted — in short, a Matkalist in his soul.”
“Thank you for fighting until the last moment, you were the first to protect and defend the nation,” Eden added. “We will remember you, memorialize you and do everything in your memory.”
