The IDF announced Wednesday that Staff Sergeant Hanan Drori, 26, from Jerusalem, a soldier in the 551st Brigade who was seriously wounded in Gaza after being hit by an anti-tank missile in December, succumbed to an aggressive fungal infection in the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv after attempts to save his life have failed.
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The hospital and Drori's family reached out to pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, seeking to obtain an experimental drug named Fosmanogepix from Ireland to Israel, supported by public crowdfunding, in an effort to aid the soldier. Unfortunately, the treatment did not help stabilize his condition.
Drori lived in the settlement of Psagot in the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council - and is the third soldier from the settlement who was killed in action. He left behind his parents and three siblings and had plans to marry. Boaz, his friend, mourned him: "What a void Hanan left behind. How much humor, how much concern, and how much love for everyone around him. Hanan, I had the pleasure of knowing you."
Drori’s friend said, "He wasn't supposed to enlist in the IDF, but decided he'd become a combat soldier anyway and did everything to make it happen, even in the reserves. At the start of the war, he told me how he was going crazy at home and how he wasn’t getting called for reserve duty."
Yisrael Gantz, head of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, said: "I knew Hanan as a nice neighbor. We lost a charming, young man with a sense of humor and a kind heart. A wise and brilliant guy. We embrace the entire family and parents Tali and Roni.”
Sheba Associate Director-General Prof. Arnon Afek said Tuesday that in addition to severe limb and abdominal injuries, the soldier also suffered from fungal infections commonly seen in such severe wounds. He noted that the hospital usually manages to treat them with anti-fungal treatment, but in this case, conventional treatment was not able to stop the infection. "We spare no effort for our soldiers, and fight for their lives," Prof. Afek said.