Those We Have Lost

Gal Danguri, 23: Partygoer was ‘6’4″ of happiness and joy’

Murdered at the Supernova music festival on October 7

Gal Danguri (Courtesy)
Gal Danguri (Courtesy)

Gal Danguri, 23, from Beit Aryeh, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.

He was slain alongside two of his closest lifelong friends, Ofek Ravia and Nadav Bartal.

He is survived by his parents, Yvonne and Yaniv, his brother Noam, his girlfriend Koral and beloved dog Kika. He was buried on October 8 in Beit Aryeh.

His mother, Yvonne, a volunteer with Magen David Adom, headed south toward the festival to search for them when she realized what was happening, bypassing any roadblocks along the way and ignoring calls for them to stop — even witnessing gun battles with terrorists.

She and the other parents found the bodies of Gal, Ofek and Nadav near Kibbutz Mefalsim. “There was an ambulance there, we took [body] bags and they gathered them up and put them in the back of our car,” recounted Yvonne to Channel 13 news. Due to that, the three friends were among the very first victims of the massacre to be buried.

Gal was a huge fan of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team, which has memorialized him and other fans murdered that day on its website. He was remembered by his loved ones as a joyful gentle giant, with a huge smile, who loved to drink lemon-flavored arak.

“You were a magical and beloved child and you grew up to be a macho man, charistmatic, smiling, kind and generous with a heart of gold,” his parents wrote in a eulogy on the Maccabi Tel Aviv website. “The light would go on when you entered a room, it was impossible to ignore you and your presence, a man who magnetized everyone who came his way, gathered and kept his friends along the way, childhood friends, from the army, from soccer and from work.”

They noted that he had spent the last seven years with his girlfriend, Koral, and had moved in together “and we waited that soon a marriage proposal would come as well.”

“You had so many plans and we have no doubt you would have achieved them,” they added, noting that he was working at the Harel insurance company and had signed up to study for a bachelor’s degree.

His aunt, Einat Marom Danguri, wrote on Facebook, “I hear your laugh in every place and think about you with every step. I miss you so much Galgul, 1.92 meters [6’4″] of happiness and joy, and all that is left is memory, stories and a huge hole in my heart.”

On his Facebook page, his father Yaniv wrote of all the times he had promised to be “yours forever”: “I promised you on the day that you were born, and I was the first person to hold you,” he wrote. “When you went to pre-school and then school… When you became a boy with a mischievousness unique only to you… In the army when you became a man with Golani’s 51st Batallion… And the start of your life together with your girlfriend, Koral, with all of your endless dreams.”

“Yours forever, upon your death I swear,” he added. “Yours forever Galgul, yours forever.”

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