Policeman killed in West Bank shooting was father of officer killed on Oct. 7
First. Sgt. Roni Shakuri’s brother-in-law says bereaved father had just begun smiling again after recent sailing trip; daughter Mor fell in battle at Sderot police station
First Sgt. Roni Shakuri, one of the three police officers killed in a terrorist attack in the West Bank on Sunday, was the father of First Sgt. Mor Shakuri, a police officer killed fighting terrorists at the Sderot police station on October 7.
The elder Shakuri, 61, was shot by terrorists near the Palestinian city of Tarqumiyah on Sunday morning alongside officers Ch. Insp. Arik Ben Eliyahu, 37, and Command Sgt. Maj. Hadas Branch, 53. The Palestinian gunman fled the scene and was later killed by Israeli forces in a firefight in Hebron.
A Sderot resident, Shakuri is survived by his wife Ayala, daughter Sapir, and granddaughter.
His daughter Mor was 29 years old when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251.
Oren Ohana, Roni’s brother-in-law, told Ynet that Roni “was an amazing, special person, an angel in human form, honest, modest, only looking out for others. Mor meant everything to him, and since she was murdered he hadn’t been living.”
“A few days ago, we came back from a sailing trip abroad with him and his wife. It was the first time they let themselves smile, breathe air, [he] suddenly started believing in the happiness of life again — and this morning we were informed he was murdered. What can you say? We’re just crying. The family is not in a good state and trying to process what happened to us, but I think we will never be able to process.”
הותר לפרסום:
אחד השוטרים שנרצחו הבוקר בפיגוע הירי באזור חברון הוא רוני שקורי משדרות – אביה של מור שקורי, בעצמה שוטרת שנהרגה בקרב על משטרת שדרות ב7.10 pic.twitter.com/Buhkyji3lT— Carmel Dangor כרמל דנגור (@carmeldangor) September 1, 2024
David Fokel, Mor’s fiance, told Ynet that Roni “was like a father to me. Last night I spoke with him. There isn’t a day we don’t speak.”
Mor was born and raised in Sderot, and served as a trainee commander on an IDF training base next to Pardes Hanna during her army service before joining the police force approximately six years ago. While serving at the Ashkelon police station, she met Fokel, a fellow police officer, and they got engaged a few months before she was killed. The couple was planning a June wedding.
Her commander, Ch. Insp. Bar Manshuri, told Ynet that Mor went up on the roof of the Sderot police station to shoot at terrorists down below until she ran out of ammunition: “She reported to me that the ammo had depleted, Unfortunately, I couldn’t help and arm them. I wrote to her that we were fighting a horrible endless battle [inside the station]. While she was in danger and fighting for her life, she wrote to me, ‘Bar, be strong.’ Even in this extreme moment, she thought of others and not herself.”
Eight officers were killed in the battle at the police station.
Mor’s sister and Roni’s daughter, Sapir, told Ynet that during the battle Mor “called my mom and said with a calmness and strength that I don’t know where she got from, ‘If something happens to me, it’s important to me that you know that I love you and dad and take care of Sapir.'”
Since October 7, tensions have been high in the West Bank, with troops arresting some 5,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,000 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 670 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 29 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.
