David was born in Istanbul, Turkey, on 30.12.1924 to his parents, Luba and Yitzhak Sobol, who were refugees from the Russian Revolution. In Turkey, Yitzhak became a Zionist, with nationalist beliefs, and he founded the Beitar Movement. David had two older brothers. In 1934, his father acquired certificates for them all, and the family made aliyah and settled in Haifa. The father quickly became involved with IZL activity, and his three sons joined Beitar, where they were educated in nationalism. David studied in elementary school, then in the gymnasium. When he was fourteen, he joined the IZL himself, and when it split, he joined Lehi, from its founding until it was absorbed into the State of Israel’s security establishment.

He started in the ranks, until he had to leave Haifa in 1944, out of fear of being arrested. He was sent to Jerusalem, where he joined the operations division, and as time passed, he became one of the central operatives of Lehi.

He was part of the assassination plot against the High Commissioner. In Tel Aviv, he was involved in recruiting and training, and some time later he was put in charge of the national training division. At the same time, he was involved in planning the attacks on British targets: seizing arms from the British Army base in Holon, attacking the base in Pardes Hannah, attacking the Lod train station, robbing Bank Discount in Tel Aviv, blowing up warplanes at Kfar Syrkin Airfield, the assassination attempt against CID officer Wilkins, and more. He composed a guidebook for training and developed a documentation division to produce convincing forgeries of certificates, licenses and passports for underground use.

In 1946, he was put in charge of the operations division in Jerusalem, and in 1947, he was made part of the general staff for operations nationwide. At the same time, he married Zipporah “Efrat” Gafni, another Lehi member. After the Bernadotte assassination, he was arrested, but he escaped after a month and hid in a safehouse until the general clemency was granted. When things calmed down, he moved to Beersheba, where he was the chief clerk of the Engineering Corps for the project of repairing the road to Eilat, the secretary of the Negev district for the National Roads Company of Israel and the director of water supply for Mekorot. In 1955, he was recruited by the security services, working for them for the next two decades in Israel and abroad. Starting in 1975, he was the CEO of the Brinks Company.

In 1989, he retired. He studied politics and Asian studies. He published three books: Drafted for Life (Maarachoth Press), Forced Underground (Yair Press) and The Arms Cache, a novel (Poalim Press).

David and Zipporah had two daughters, Eilat and Sheva.