Only 250 meters separate the death notices for David Shakuri posted on Ein Gedi Street from the death notices for Hanan Drori hung on Korah Hadorot Street in the Arnona neighborhood in Jerusalem. The neighborhood has already lost four IDF soldiers in this war: Aner Elyakim Shapiro, Zechariah Pesach Haber, and now David and Hanan.
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On Wednesday, the IDF announced 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. The hospital and the family even reached out to Pfizer to obtain an experimental medication called Fosmanogepix from Ireland, with the help of citizen initiatives, but his condition was too severe for further treatment.
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 in Jerusalem 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."
Hanan's friend recounted that "he wasn't supposed to be in the IDF at all, but he decided he would be a soldier and simply changed worlds. Even then, he initially received a 'jobnik' role in the IDF, but cut a deal in order to serve in a combat unit and then get into the reserves. At the beginning of the war, he told me how crazy he was going at home and how frustrated he was that he couldn't find a reserves deployment."
On October 7, Staff Sgt. Aner Elyakim Shapiro, 22, fell while bravely fighting numerous terrorists near Kibbutz Re'im, saving the lives of many. Just under a month ago, Major Sergeant Zechariah Pesach Haber, 32, fell in combat in the northern Gaza Strip, leaving behind a wife and three young children. And now, Major David Shakuri, 30, fell three days ago.
"Everyone in the neighborhood knows my dad because of his grocery store," said Guy, 27, David's brother. "There's always a family atmosphere here. People greet each other on the street. There's mutual support. When we went to the funeral, hundreds of people were waiting for us with flags. Everyone came to comfort us. It's familiar to us. That's the uniqueness of this area in Jerusalem."
"We ate and laughed together at our last Friday meal two weeks ago," he recounted about the last time he saw his older brother. "At the end, he hugged me tightly as if he was saying goodbye. I said to him, 'If need be, I'll go with you to Gaza right now.' He was like a second father in the house. Caring, humble and calm. He greatly respected our parents. I'm shattered."