Father of Fallen Soldier: Tamir Yadai 'Directly Responsible' for October 7th Failure, 'Abandoned' Soldiers to Die
Yadai is in the running to become the next IDF Chief of Staff
Eyal Eshel, father of fallen Nahal Oz lookout Roni Eshel, blasted Major Gen. Tamir Yadai’s candidacy for Chief of Staff of the IDF alleging that Yadai “abandoned them to die” on October 7th with faulty and outdated equipment.
Yadai has previously come under fire for attempting to block donations of safe equipment to IDF soldiers in the field.
Here is a translated version of Eshel’s Facebook post:
On the Agenda Today: The Candidate for Chief of Staff, Tamir Yadai
I sat down, did my homework, read, understood, and with all due respect to a senior officer, as distinguished as he may be, a candidate for the position of Chief of Staff must be worthy—truly worthy.
Tamir Yadai's last role was Commander of the Ground Forces.
Let me clarify: this is not about revenge, and I am not pursuing him. I have no personal connection to him, and we have never met. He is an IDF commander who is now a candidate.
First, I seek in a person the wisdom and integrity to say himself:
"Mr. Minister of Defense, Mr. Chief of Staff, I withdraw my candidacy because..."
Since such a statement has not been made, I will outline in this post transparency for the public—for the citizens of the state—as I understand it should be from the field:
For the last three years, he served as Commander of the Ground Forces.
During this period, he was directly responsible for the operations and functionality of the Balloon Unit, a unit composed of top-tier personnel, which suffered significant losses on Saturday, October 7.
In this unit, there were observation balloons that had not been operational for a long time before that Saturday (due to poor and disgraceful maintenance)—faulty balloons, outdated and non-functional cameras, and a lack of spare parts for the cameras themselves.
That same Saturday, my dear friend Rafael Ben-Shitrit also lost his son, Elroi, who was among the soldiers of the Balloon Unit and was killed in the battle at Nahal Oz.
At Elbit Systems, there was a shortage of spare parts. Soldiers searched for replacement parts for various systems on AliExpress just to make them operational.
Balloons that had not been deployed in the weeks leading up to Saturday, October 7.
The "See-Shoot" Unit, an advanced Israeli-developed system that performed excellently for years, is, like the Balloon Unit, outdated, neglected, and lacking proper maintenance—namely spare parts for its designated stations.
The Border Defense Corps, a failing corps, also under the command of the Ground Forces Directorate, led by Major General Tamir Yadai.
A corps that disgraced its female soldiers, betrayed them, and on that Saturday morning, abandoned them to die in the Nahal Oz operations room.
A corps that disregarded the female soldiers, leading to the appalling phrase we introduced:
"Nobody's female soldiers..."
Commanders in this corps are unworthy of wearing the pure uniform of the IDF.
On December 12, 2024, Tamir Yadai concluded his position.
The appointment of the Chief of Staff must be pure and carefully considered because what is at stake is a tectonic, systemic overhaul of the entity known as the Israel Defense Forces.
