Bloodstained car seat; Photo credit: Elhanan Gruner, HaKol HaYehudi
Wednesday, March 11, 2020, 9:27 A 14-year-old Yitzhar resident is on a ventilator and in a medically induced coma following a serious attack in the Arab town of Hawara on the night of Tuesday, March 10. An Arab threw a cinder block at his head from very close range, causing a cranial fracture and internal bleeding. MDA medical personnel evacuated the youth to the Shneider Children’s Hospital. After deteriorating overnight, the following morning the youth’s condition stabilized and was classified serious, but stable. An operation was scheduled for several hours later.
The incident occurred when a car with several Jewish Shomron residents stopped at a traffic circle in Hawara on the main road leading to the Jewish Gav HaHar communities in the Shomron. The residents, the youth and his brothers, got out and danced to Purim music. Several Arab youths in a car stopped next to them, cursed them, and attacked them. Additional Arabs gathered and tried to block them. The Jewish youths got back into their car and the driver, a lone soldier who recently completed his army service, defended himself against the attackers and succeeded in leaving the site.
According to eye witness testimonies, after the youth got into the car, one of the Arabs threw a cinder block through an open window at his head from close range. The Jews succeeded in driving to the Yitzhar Intersection on the main road where army personnel met them and provided initial medical treatment to the injured youth. The Arabs claim that one of them was lightly injured during the incident and that their car was damaged. Police and army forces took testimonies from those present at the scene of the incident.
Shomron Regional Council Head, Yossi Degan: “This was a very serious incident, an attempted anti-Semitic murder, and a nationalistically motivated incident in every way. I spoke to the father of the injured youth, I was updated on his condition and I call on the public to pray for the recovery of the youth. I have never seen an Arab who stopped in a concentrated Jewish population attacked with such murderous violence. I call on the army and the police to apprehend the terrorists and to prosecute them to the full extent of the law.”
Attorneys from Honenu’s Terror Victims Department are assisting the family with realizing their rights.
Update – Wednesday, March 11, 2020, 12:21
The 14-year-old youth from Yitzhar is entering surgery for a cranial operation. He is still is on a ventilator and in a medically induced coma. His family requested that the public pray for his recovery: Tsadok Aryeh ben Ayelet HaShahar.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is assisting the family: “This was a serious terror attack. A cinder block was thrown from close range at the head of a youth in an cruel attempted murder. We are completely certain that the IDF will lay their hands on the terrorist.
“We demand the arrest and prosecution of everyone who participated in the attack on the youth. Honenu will assist the terror victim during legal proceedings against the terrorist and his accomplices so that they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and so that the deterrence factor against terror is strengthened.”