The victim of the Friday morning, 14 Cheshvan fatal shooting incident near Yishuv Otniel in the Southern Hebron Hills has been identified as Rabbi Dan Martzbach z”l, 53, a resident of Otniel. The levaya will begin at 10:00am in the yishuv and from there the procession will travel to Har HaZeisim for kvura.

The rav is survived by a wife, five children and 10 grandchildren. He served as the rav of a number of area communities, including Eshkolot, Shima, Omarim and Tena.

A full investigation into the incident is underway by the IDF. It appears that a stationary watch post inside Otniel detected a suspicious vehicle, a silver colored Peugeot with Israeli license plates, driving very slowly on the main road, Route 60. The driver was flashing his headlights as if he was signaling someone. The information was forwarded to soldiers on the road, and they spotted the car a short time later, traveling in the early morning, a bit after 5:00am without headlights. The driver was signaled to halt for an inspection. Investigators believe the rav may have nodded off momentarily and therefore did not detect he was being asked to stop, or that he did not see the soldier’s signal due to the limited visibility at the time. He was a veteran resident of the community and well acquainted with the rules of driving in the area, leading IDF investigators to believe he may have nodded off.

After he failed to comply with instructions of soldiers they fired a warning shot in the air and then at the vehicle, eight shots, believing the vehicle was manned with terrorists about to drive into them. The car drove a few hundred meters before coming to a halt.

The soldiers ran to the vehicle and immediately realized the victim was a rav from the area, a well known personality, and the women seated in the rear of his vehicle were injured. They were heading to the Machpelah to daven shachris.

The rav was critically wounded in his head and he died a short time later, apparently in a military chopper that was heading to the trauma unit of Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. A 45-year-old woman was moderately wounded and another less seriously. It is unclear if there was another victim. A soldier was hit by truck driven by an Arab as he was running to what he believed was a terrorist vehicle. He too was transported to the hospital, apparently with light injuries.

The Rosh Yeshiva of the Otniel Hesder Yeshiva and rav of Otniel, Rabbi Re’em Cohen notified the wife, Rebitzen Esther of the tragedy. Rav Cohen described the niftar as an “ish chessed” one who was always occupied with assisting others.