Rabbi Mark's children
Rabbi Mark's childrenspokesman

The Mark family from Otniel responded on Wednesday to the sentence given to the terrorist who murdered their father last summer.

"Eight long and difficult months have passed since our father was killed by an evil terrorist," they said. "The abominable murderer who received his sentence today does not interest us, and his court case was never part of our lives.

"Today we are working on strengthening our family, on embracing one another. Together with our mother, who has not yet recovered from her serious injuries, we are working to rebuild our lives.

"Not long ago, we put up a headstone for our father, a headstone on which we inscribed a few words which express a lot.

"There are murderers and there are builders. We learned from Dad to always become stronger and to build level after level."

The Mark family also shared part of a letter they sent to the judge:

"This murderer who is sitting here doesn't interest us. He has lost the 'image of G-d' every human has. Our father will never return.

"What we care about is that this person never be allowed to harm anyone else, to cause other families to go through the hell we have suffered for more than half a year. This murderer and his accomplices have sat in jail in the past, and were freed in the 'Shalit deal' - and went back to committing terror attacks.

"They should not be allowed to do so again. It should not occur to their friends to choose this path, this path of death. They should know that the way of the sword does not pay.

"I stand here, without my brothers or sisters, because we do not have any interest in this lowly creature who has lost the 'image of G-d' and who is capable of committing such heinous acts. He doesn't interest us, and never has.

"We only want to prevent other families from sharing our fate. Both of my children's grandfathers were murdered, and I would not wish that on anyone.

"The State of Israel, and especially those who lead it, must avoid freeing terrorists in any deal. It has been proven that even a terrorist 'without blood on his hands' becomes re-involved in terror when he is let free, and then becomes a terrorist 'with blood on his hands.'

"We ask the State of Israel not to give in to internal or external pressures to release terrorists. And we call on all of those involved to visit the graves of those who were murdered by 'Shalit deal' terrorists, and to ask their forgiveness."

Gilad Shalit was freed in 2011 in exchange for the release of 1,070 terrorist prisoners. Since then, many of the freed terrorists have returned to terrorist activities and murdered several - if not dozens - of Israeli citizens.