Hadas Malka, killed by terrorist, remembered as loving, brave warrior

‘Shabbat Shalom to my loving friends,’ wrote Border Police officer in a message she sent to her friends along with a selfie minutes before her death.

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD
Updated: JUNE 18, 2017 08:53
The selfie Staff Sergeant Major Hadas Malka took moments before she was killed. (photo credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
The selfie Staff Sergeant Major Hadas Malka took moments before she was killed.
(photo credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
Moments before being stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist outside Damascus Gate Friday evening, St.-Sgt. Maj. Hadas Malka, 23, sent her close friends a final smiling selfie wishing them a good Shabbat.
“Shabbat Shalom to my loving friends,” wrote Malka, of Moshav Givat Ezer, in central Israel.
Less than 10 minutes before her death, two friends thanked her with messages concluding with red hearts.
Malka, who had three sisters and two brothers, was remembered Saturday by family and close friends for her extraordinary bravery, which many compared to Wonder Woman.
Nofar Sarusi, a friend, said she was deeply rattled by Malka’s death.
“I woke up from a nap and my mother told me that there had been an attack in Jerusalem,” she told Ynet.
“I said: ‘How could there have been an attack? She just sent us a message,’” she continued, adding: “Every time there was an attack in Jerusalem, I would SMS her to see if she was okay and she would always answer. Yesterday, she simply didn’t answer.”
Despite the inherent risks involved with patrolling Jerusalem, and the Old City in particular, Sarusi said Malka remained unafraid.
Israeli police react to deadly Jerusalem terror attack, June 17, 2017. (Credit: Israel Police)
“No one will come and approach me. They won’t dare even to come close to me,” she once wrote Sarusi.
“Hadas was a real-life Wonder Woman,” her friend Amit Azulai told Channel 2.
“Good-hearted and optimistic.”
Malka, who served in the Navy, later joined the Border Police for 15 months after deciding she wanted to protect Jerusalem from terrorists.
“She didn’t want to be in the Navy, she wanted more meaningful service,” her uncle, Yaakov Abutbul, told Ynet. “She wanted to contribute; she was patriotic like no other. For Hadas, her army service was when she began to blossom, and our flag symbolized a lot to her.”
Abutbul added: “When she wanted to move to the Border Police, I said to her: ‘Again with basic training?’ And she replied: ‘It’s worth it to me.’” When Border Police Cpl.
Hadar Cohen, 19, was killed and another female officer critically wounded in February 2016 at Damascus Gate by three Arab terrorists wielding machine guns, pipe bombs and knives, Malka posted on her Facebook page: “We are all Border Police guards. In memory of heroine Hadar Cohen.”
Malka, who was promoted posthumously to the rank of Staff-Sergeant Major, was buried shortly after midnight Saturday at a cemetery in Ashdod.