Yair Hanania was born on March 29, 1977 in Ramat Gan to Moni and Yehudit. He grew up and was educated in Pardes Hannah and graduated the ORT Shomron vocational high school in Binyamina.
Yair was drafted in November 1995 and served as a combat soldier in the Lahav Battalion of the Combat Engineering Corps. He was killed in a car accident on August 9, 1996 while on active duty. He was buried in the Military Cemetery in Pardes Hannah.