Second Lieutenant Pdaya Mark, son of terror victim Rabbi Michael Mark, who was murdered near Hebron in 2016, fell in battle with Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Pdaya's cousin, Elchanan Kalmanson, fell in battle on October 7, as Jews throughout the country celebrated the Simchat Torah holiday. Kalmanson was battling Hamas terrorists who had overtaken communities in southern Israel, when he fell.
When he was 15, Pdaya and his family were driving to Jerusalem when a terrorist opened fire at them, shooting 29 bullets at the family's vehicle, which then overturned. The bullets hit the entire family, but Pdaya himself was hit only by shrapnel.
Three years after the terror attack, Pdaya's brother Shlomi was killed in a traffic accident while on his way to his job in the Defense Ministry. Pdaya's sister Orit Mark Ettinger is an Israeli media personality.
Rabbi Michael Mark, a cousin of former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, was the dean of the hesder yeshiva in Otniel, and brother to Yochi Kalmanson, whose husband Rabbi Benny Kalmanson heads the yeshiva together with Rabbi Re'em Hacohen.
A notice published by the town of Otniel on Wednesday morning reads, "Blessed is the true Judge. With indescribable pain, the Otniel family announces the fall of Pdaya Mark in a heroic battle against Hamas terrorists. Details regarding the funeral and the week of mourning will be sent later. The Otniel family embraces the Mark and Kalmanson families. May we be comforted with the rebuilding of Jerusalem."
In a tragic twist of the Israel story, Platoon Commander Shilo Rauchberger Hy"d, killed on the first day of the war protecting his soldiers, was Pdaya's counselor at the OneFamily bereaved family organization and helped Pdaya return to himself after his father's murder. The two (Pdaya in the row above Shilo) can be seen in this photo taken at a OneFamily summer camp for orphans and siblings bereaved in terror attacks.
