The smile that remains forever: Capt. Adir ‘Porto’ Portugal, OBM
There was no one who did not catch the smile of ‘Porto,’ Capt. Adir Portugal, who fell in the battles in the Gaza Strip during the Swords of Iron war. Even during his final battle, he clung to the values that accompanied him throughout his life, helping others.
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Already in his childhood, it was clear that Adir had the special DNA of professional fighters. A love and curiosity to explore every new environment he arrived in, a positive outlook on things, high sensitivity to his surroundings, and an outstanding athlete who knew how to conquer every goal.
“When we would travel to a hotel, he would turn on all the circuit breakers to see which light worked,” his father Avraham recounts with shining eyes. “He would turn them on one by one and check what each switch controlled, and until he did that and knew everything by heart, he would not calm down.”
Adir’s mother, Dina, speaks about the big, infectious smile, the smile that instilled confidence in everyone around him. “Adir was always on the positive side, made everyone laugh and saw the good in things,” she says. “Very friendly and very sensitive to his environment. There were stories we heard from school about children who were being picked on, and Adir always knew how to be sensitive and stand by their side. From a young age and throughout the years, he believed in the value that everyone is equal, that everyone should be treated on the same level.”
In soccer, Adir flourished. Until the age of 17, he played in professional leagues and released most of his energy as an outstanding athlete. At school, they say he was mischievous, fell and got hurt often during games, cut his lip or broke a tooth. He was always a fighter and always loved and connected to challenges. And so, already during middle school and high school, it was clear to his parents that he would be a combat soldier. “He is going to contribute and be the very best, and that was clear to him. He is going to be a sniper and he is going to be as combat as it gets,” Dina recounts.
Adir enlisted in the Purple Brigade, the Givati Brigade. After successfully completing the challenging selection process for the reconnaissance unit and serving as an outstanding fighter, he went to officer training after two years. After his discharge, he decided to fly to South America, and there the war “caught” him.
His friends speak of a commander with an infectious smile and endless courage, who preferred to protect his friends even in his final moments.
Already on that same day, that cursed Saturday, October 7, Adir understood that he had to get on a rescue flight. “In my heart, I said, ‘Do not put him on the flight,’” Dina recounts. But he arranged the flight for himself. His father shares that he “took care of things from afar so that the moment he landed, he would already have an emergency call-up order. Even from abroad, he took care of getting protective gear.”
Sarel Masas, Adir’s commander, speaks about the moment Adir arrived unexpectedly at the base. He arrived and announced that he was going to be inside the first Namer APC entering Gaza. He insisted and said that he did not come from South America to wait. “I see him, I see his smile, and I understand that I want someone professional by my side,” Masas shares. “I told him, ‘You know what, Adir, come on, you are joining me,’ and that is how we were for two and a half weeks. Together inside the Namer. Until he fell.”
Three days before he fell, Adir came to say goodbye.
“In two and a half weeks of knowing him, you feel as if you have known him for years. He told me about his desire to return to the army and his desire to get married,” Masas recounts.
His parents remember the last moment they met, three days before he fell. An everyday moment of lunch with schnitzel and pasta, but unlike usual, Adir stayed home during the day and did not go out. “It was Wednesday night, Adir asks me and Dina in our family group chat, ‘Are you home tomorrow?’” his father recounts the joyful message from Adir, announcing that they had received a few hours of leave. “We said, ‘Of course, we will come pick you up, I will be with you at home.’”
That day, all of his friends came to Adir. “And that is something that is not typical of Adir, to sit at home. There was something like a Friday evening atmosphere, and this was actually our last meal together, and the last time we saw him.”
In one of the last videos that was filmed, Adir is sitting in the Namer and says, “We are good, we are OK, and we will win, and we are strong, and we will be here until we bring back the hostages.” This was the atmosphere and spirit that Adir instilled in the fighters under his command.
On November 19, 2023, the company commander of Adir, who was leading the attack, exited the armored vehicle toward a suspicious target and was ambushed by terrorists. “We received a report over the radio that he was ambushed, that he had wounded soldiers, and that he himself was wounded,” Masas reconstructs. “I said, ‘Guys, I am jumping first, you jump after me.’ We were ambushed by a terrorist who fired at us. I returned fire and he hit a soldier who was standing behind me.”
“He did not think about himself. He thought about saving his friends.”
Adir understands that his friends are in a dangerous situation, and just as he answered the call at the beginning of the war, in that fateful moment as well he makes the decision to go in and help from inside. On the way there, he is shot from behind by a terrorist who was hiding in a nearby house.
That bullet hits Adir from behind and he falls on the spot. “He did not think about himself, he did not think about anything, he thought about his friends who were wounded, and that there were more terrorists there who could abduct them, hurt them. What went through his mind was to save them.”
Adir’s parents and siblings continue his legacy. “This year was already the second year that we held a soccer tournament in his memory in Mazkeret Batya,” they share. “There is not a day that we do not think about him and commemorate him in every way possible.”
His father says through tears, “I had a very powerful child, very powerful in every sense, physically strong, powerful, popular and loved, and smiling.”
“We are constantly thinking about commemorating him, telling his story, so that he will be remembered and people will learn and know,” Dina adds.
Masas, Adir’s commander of blessed memory, concludes and says, “People hold weddings and circumcisions, and the people of Israel continue to grow and rejoice, and it is only because of people like these. So at the very least, let us talk about them, remember them, and every such thing breathes life into them.”
May his memory be a blessing.
Captain
Adir Portugal