Second Lieutenant Pedaya Mark was killed in combat against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip while serving as an officer in the Givati Brigade, the IDF announced on Wednesday morning. Mark was the son of the late Rabbi Michael (Miki) Mark, who was murdered in a shooting attack near the Hebron Hills in 2016.
“We were always taught to go to combat service in the IDF, but after [my father’s] murderous attack I felt that I understood how important it is,” Mark told The Jerusalem Post‘s sister publication Maariv in an interview on June 29, 2022.
פדושק, אחי האהובהקטן אבל הגדולגבר בין 5 בנות- אחיות מעריצותשרד את הפיגועסיירת גבעתי כי זה פדיהנלחם להיות קציןונפל בקרב בגבורה יחד עם חייליו בעזהוהלב, מה איתו?אבא, שלומי, אלחנן- כולם מקבלים שם את פניו פדושקה.ואנחנו? נותרנו ריקים וחסרים.כבר אין בי מילים”ארץ אל תכסי דמך” pic.twitter.com/SOXc5HxiQA
— אורית מרק אטינגר (@Oritmark1) November 1, 2023
“Padushka, my beloved brother/ The small but the big one/ A man among five daughters – adoring sisters/ Survived the attack/ Givati patrol because that’s Pedaya/ Fought to be an officer/ and fell bravely in battle together with his soldiers in Gaza.
“And the heart, what about it?/ Abba (Father), Shlomi, Elhanan – everyone is greeted there by Padushka/ And us? We are left empty and lacking/ I have no words anymore/ ‘Earth, don’t cover your blood.'”
(Based on Job 16:18, “Earth, don’t cover my blood, and let my cry have no resting-place.”)
Pedaya’s sister, Orit Mark Ettinger
Seven years after the murderous shooting attack on Route 60 – and three years after his late brother Shlomi, who was also a combat soldier in Givati, was killed in a car accident – Pedaya continued the family legacy and completed the training course as a combat soldier. In an interview with Maariv, Mark talked about the painful days after the terror attack, and about his decision to serve as an infantryman and commander in the brigade.
“I grew up in Otniel and about six years ago I drove with my father, mother, and sister Tehila to my grandmother’s in Jerusalem. About five minutes after the start of the trip, a car overtook us and terrorists fired about 30 rounds at us from a Kalashnikov rifle. Our car overturned.” Mark said of the attack.
“My sister and I managed to free ourselves from our seat belts and immediately realized that it was a terror attack,” he recounted. “When the car was upside down, I looked for a knife and Tehila tried to look for the cell phone of my parents, who were unconscious. One of the terrorists got out of the car to make sure we were killed. We saw the terrorist’s legs and then by chance a Palestinian car drove by, which stopped and the terrorists fled.”
In the Palestinian vehicle were a man and a woman, who tried to help. “At the beginning, we were very worried that they might be terrorists, so when they told me and Tehila to get into their car, we kept our feet outside the door to be safe. We asked them for a cell phone to call and report the attack. At the same time we found out that Tehila was wounded by a bullet in the stomach and the Palestinian woman began to help stop the bleeding. Then, an IDF patrol jeep followed by lots of soldiers arrived,” Pedaya shared.
‘I see IDF service as a calling’
Mark’s personal turning point after the terrible experience came in the twelfth grade. “I realized that I would either let life pass me by or I would live it – and I chose to live. I started doing matriculation [exams] and getting back on track.”
While he was recovering, another heavy disaster befell the Mark family. “My brother Shlomi was a soldier and a company commander in Givati. After finishing his service in the IDF, he worked in the security system. About three years ago, he was killed in a car accident on Route 6 at the Kiryat Gat interchange. He left behind a wife and three children aged three months, and five and nine years old.”
Pedaya decided to follow in his brother’s footsteps for significant combat service in the IDF. “I enlisted in March 2021. At first, I did the entrance tests to get into Sayeret Matkal, and then I enlisted in Givati. Family members came to the closing ceremony of the training course in Givati and we were all so excited. It was very exciting,” Mark said last year.
“I will be a training officer for new recruits at the Givati training base. I hope to continue as an officer and I see service in the IDF as a calling.”
Another disaster in the family came on October 8, when Elhanan Clemenzon, a 43-year-old resident of Otniel and a relative of the Mark family, fell in the Gaza Strip while rescuing civilians from the October 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas terrorists.
The death of Pedaya is the fourth family tragedy in recent years. In a statement issued on behalf of the Otniel community, it was written: “Baruch Dayan Ha’emet [Blessed is the True Judge]. With sadness that cannot be described in words, Beit Otniel announces the death of Pedaya Mark in a heroic battle against Hamas terrorists.”
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