Dan Damri, 21: Partygoer who ‘raised everyone’s spirits’
Murdered by Hamas while fleeing the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7
Dan Damri, 21, from the Gaza border settlement Tzohar, was murdered by Hamas terrorists mere minutes before he reached home after fleeing the Supernova music festival on October 7.
He attended the rave with a group of friends — including his girlfriend Shir Yaron, Chen Ben Avi, Dudi Turgeman and Dor Nahum — who fled the party together in one car when the rocket fire began. The five of them made it to the Mivtahim Junction, just outside their homes, where they were all shot dead by Hamas terrorists lying in wait. A day later, their bodies were all discovered lying in the road, riddled with bullets.
Dan was buried in the cemetery in Tzohar and is survived by his mother, Shoshana, and his five older siblings, Shimrit, Nir, Shlomi, Tal and Chen. His father, Eliyahu, died when Dan was 13.
He had finished his mandatory military service only a month before he was murdered.
His brother, Nir, said Dan was the “funniest and happiest” person in the world.
Dan’s sister wrote on an Instagram page in his memory that his “passion was people,” and “there was no one who didn’t want to be his best friend because he would light up any room he entered.”
“Before anything, he was a good person, and despite his challenges and difficulties in the army and at school, he didn’t give up and always rose again after every fall,” she wrote.
She added that he always used to bring animals home to his mother including a goat named Nancy who escaped one day while he was in the army, forcing his mother to chase after her.
Dan’s teenage niece, Eden, wrote that although he was her uncle, he had been more like a brother and was her “heart” and her “whole life.”
“You were supposed to take me to my first party, the person I was supposed to drink with for the first time, the one who was supposed to tease me and laugh at me,” she wrote, adding that it did not make sense to her that he was no longer around.
Dan’s friends from the army set up a crowdfunding page to raise money for his family, and described him as “the heart of the platoon whom everyone loved and wanted to be around.”
“When things were hard, he raised everyone’s spirits with his jokes and positive outlook,” they wrote. “Everyone who knew Dan knew that he would never leave you alone when you needed him.”
