The head of an Israeli soldier beheaded by Hamas terrorists on October 7 has been put up for sale in Gaza for $10,000, it has emerged.
Sergeant Adir Tahar, 19, from Jerusalem, was killed by the terrorists after they threw grenades at him as they rampaged through southern Israel, slaughtering 1,200 Israelis.
The gunmen then beheaded the young soldier and took his severed head back to Gaza, his heartbroken father David Tahar told Channel 14 as he condemned the “insanely barbaric” desecration of his son’s body.
David, overcome with grief, was forced to bury his son’s mutilated body before promising to do everything in his power to bring Adir’s head home and give him ‘peace of mind and body’.
After a grueling two and a half months, IDF soldiers finally found the 19-year-old’s head in a duffel bag filled with tennis balls in a freezer in Gaza, David said.
The IDF later told him that an interrogation of two Hamas terrorists revealed that one of them had tried to sell Adir’s head in Gaza for US$10,000 ($8,000).
Sergeant Adir Tahar, 19, (pictured) from Jerusalem, was killed by the terrorists after they threw grenades at him as they rampaged through southern Israel, slaughtering 1,200 Israelis
The gunmen then beheaded the young soldier and took his decapitated head back to Gaza, his heartbroken father David Tahar told Channel 14 as he condemned the “insanely barbaric” desecration of his son’s body.
“It’s insanely barbaric,” said David, as the father told how, in the depths of his despair, he had found a video online showing his son’s decapitated body.
“The terrorists, the barbarians, they beheaded him and took the head to Gaza. I did everything I could, it wasn’t easy, I ended up with a headless body. I insisted that the army show me the body,” David said.
“They tried to explain to me that I wasn’t allowed to see it.”
But the grief-stricken father was convinced he needed to see his son’s body.
With shaking hands, David opened his son’s coffin shortly before he was buried and saw his worst nightmare: Adir’s headless body, pierced by shrapnel.
‘Half an hour before I buried my child, his body arrived on Mount Herzi. I opened the coffin when I was alone,” David said. ‘Then I understood what I was burying. He was unrecognizable.’
Adir was identified through his soldier tags and a DNA test due to the gruesome mutilation of his body by the terrorists.
‘When I buried Adir, I knew I was burying my child without an essential part of him. Then the journey began to find that missing piece,” David said.
Adir (pictured) was identified by his soldier dog tags and a DNA test due to the horrific mutilation of his body by the terrorists
David, overcome with grief, was forced to bury his son’s mutilated body before promising to do everything in his power to bring Adir’s decapitated head home and give him ‘peace of mind and body’.
Sergeant Adir Tahar, 19, (pictured) from Jerusalem, was killed by the terrorists after they threw grenades at him as they rampaged through southern Israel, slaughtering 1,200 Israelis
While searching for information about Adir, the heartbroken father discovered a gruesome video of his son on Telegram.
“There’s a video from Telegram. Unfortunately, I found my son’s video, where you can see that my child is missing this essential part of him,” David said.
More than two months after his son was murdered and beheaded, IDF soldiers managed to remove Adir’s head from a duffel bag full of tennis balls and documents.
Israeli soldiers told David that they had interrogated two Hamas terrorists and “they realized that one of them had tried to sell his head for $10,000,” he said.
‘It’s a miracle that we were able to find his head in the end. We recovered the bones, what they found, tested DNA, also found teeth and buried him.”
David reburied his son three weeks ago after Adir’s head was recovered.
The barbaric murder and beheading of Adir sheds further light on the terrorists’ brutal attack on October 7. In response, Israel has launched a devastating bombardment of Gaza, killing 24,000 people so far, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry.
The rampaging terrorists unleashed horrors beyond belief on October 7, with rescuers previously detailing how Hamas gunmen killed a husband and gouged out his eyes before then cutting off his wife’s breasts.
Doctors have told how entire families were massacred in their homes by the black-clad terrorists wielding assault rifles and grenades when they launched their surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7.
An Israeli colonel also told how a gunman cut open the stomach of a pregnant mother and killed her baby in front of her eyes before shooting her in the head.
In response, Israel has launched devastating airstrikes on Gaza, leaving the small enclave in ruins and killing thousands.
At least 24,448 Palestinians, about 70 percent of whom are women, young children and adolescents, have been killed in Israeli bombings and ground attacks, according to the latest figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Hamas and other militants seized about 250 hostages in the October 7 attacks, and about 132 remain in Gaza, including at least 27 believed killed.
An Israeli army tank approaches the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel on Wednesday
Palestinians, whose buildings were damaged since they were near the targeted Al-Hut family building, are seen standing around the rubble of the buildings as Israeli attacks continue in Gaza’s Rafah on Wednesday.
Relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks cry over their bodies at An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, Gaza, on Wednesday
The plight of those still in captivity has gripped Israeli society, while a broader humanitarian crisis in Gaza, marked by the threat of famine and disease, has fueled international calls for a ceasefire .
Today, the IDF stepped up attacks on Khan Yhunis in southern Gaza, ahead of the expected delivery of medicine to hostages in exchange for humanitarian aid under a newly concluded agreement.
The deal announced Tuesday allowing medicine to reach hostages and aid to enter the besieged Palestinian territory was brokered by Qatar and France.
Under the agreement, “medicines are to be delivered along with other humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza… in exchange for providing medicines needed for Israeli prisoners in Gaza,” Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed the deal, which is expected to see 45 hostages receive medicine.
The International Committee of the Red Cross welcomed the deal, calling it “a much-needed moment of relief.”
A security source in Egypt said a Qatari plane carrying medicines arrived in El-Arish, near the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, on Wednesday.
France said the drugs would be sent to a hospital in Rafah, where they would be handed over to the Red Cross and divided into batches before being handed over to the hostages.
Hamas has released dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a ceasefire in November brokered by Qatar, where the group’s political office is based.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he was hopeful that Qatar-mediated talks could lead to a new agreement “soon.”