Condition improves of critically wounded Jerusalem stabbing victim

Gavriel Lavi’s condition has stabilized, say doctors, but he remains sedated and on a respirator.

By World Israel News Staff 

An improvement is reported in the condition of Gavriel Lavi, 50, who was stabbed several times in his upper body in a terror attack on Friday in Jerusalem, says Shaare Zedek Hospital.

An 18-year-old Palestinian stabbed Lavi near Damascus Gate, wounding him seriously, and then, as he ran off, stabbed 16-year-old Yisrael Meir Nachumberg, who was lightly hurt.

Lavi is reported as still sedated and on a respirator, after undergoing surgery.

From his bed in Hadassah-Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, Nachumberg said he was “scared to death” when the attacker jumped on him. He said he had been riding his bicycle toward the Jaffa Gate, but got off to fix something.

He says that had he still been riding instead of getting off, the terrorist could have stabbed him in the neck, causing him far greater injury. As it was, the stab wound was only “a centimeter” away from his spinal cord, he says

The teen adds that after he was attacked, the assailant ran in pursuit of his brother, but that police then shot and  killed the terrorist before the brother could be harmed.

The attack took place during a weekend that marked the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Israel’s Jerusalem Day, which celebrates the 1967 IDF capture of the Old City in the Six Day War after Arab armies had surrounded the Jewish State in an effort to destroy it.