Tal Haimi, 41: Engineer and dad had ‘a smile that inspired confidence’

Tal Haimi, 41, the commander of the Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak local security team, was slain while defending the kibbutz on October 7 and his body taken captive to Gaza.

With the start of the attack that Saturday morning, Tal told his wife, Ela, to stay in their reinforced room as he set out to attempt to thwart the Hamas invasion.

He and other members of the rapid response team battled the invading terrorists at the entrance to the kibbutz until he was shot dead. He was initially considered missing before authorities said he had likely been taken hostage.

In December 2023, Tal’s family was informed based on intelligence that he had been killed on October 7 and his body taken hostage. His family held a funeral without his body.

In all, six members of Nir Yitzhak’s local security team were killed, including its director, Yaron Shahar, as well as Oren Goldin, Boaz Abraham, Lior Rudaeff and Ofek Arazi. Rudaeff and Goldin’s bodies were also kidnapped to Gaza, and Goldin’s was recovered by IDF troops in July 2024.

Tal’s body was returned to Israel by Hamas on October 20, 2025. With the announcement of his identification, the IDF revealed that he was posthumously recognized as a fallen soldier with the rank of sergeant major in the reserves.

He was finally buried in Nir Yitzhak on October 22, 2025, two years after his family held a first, symbolic funeral during which they buried his helmet.

Tal is survived by his wife, Ela, and their three children, Nir, Einav and Udi. In May 2024, his youngest son, Lotan, was born, seven months after he was killed. He is also survived by his father, Zohar, and sister, Or. His mother, Esti, died of cancer in July 2023.

He was born and raised in Nir Yitzhak, the third generation in the kibbutz and the oldest in his family, according to a kibbutz obituary.

He attended local schools, including the nearby Ma’ale Habesor high school. After graduating, he did a year of national service with the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement before enlisting in the IDF and joining the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion.

When he was released from the army, Tal returned to Nir Yitzhak to work in its dairy farm, and at the same time, pursued a degree in mechanical engineering at Ben Gurion University in Beersheba. For the past 10 years, he worked as an engineer at a factory in Kibbutz Revivim.

Tal and Ela were a couple since high school, building their lives together in Nir Yitzhak, where they were raising their three children. The couple had learned that they were expecting their fourth child just three weeks before Tal was killed.

His sister, Or, eulogized Tal as “my safe place. My source of pride, my anchor. With few words, without drama.”

The pair “accepted each other unconditionally, even when they didn’t agree. Tal had a look and a smile that inspired confidence, that gave faith that we would overcome. Because with Tal, anything was possible.”

Or said that her children “were privileged to have a loving uncle, a full partner in their lives, who lifted them to the skies on their birthdays, took them for a ride in the security car, a foray to the buttercup field, tasks in the community garden, shy looks, tickling and more. And above all — true love.”

Ela told The Times of Israel in July 2025 that “Tal was a very clear and straightforward person. It’s very easy for me to know his opinion about anything. I’m trying to do what he asked of me. The conversation isn’t over. I still speak to him in my head.”

In her own eulogy, Ela pointed out that they were “more years together than we are apart. I never embarked on a challenge or a project without you by my side. You brought so much stability to my life, you supported me and made me into who I am.”

Read more Those We Have Lost stories here.