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Family of Tel Aviv terror victim donates organs to five people

The heart transplant went to Yedidya Sulimani, father of four and grandfather of 11.

By JNS

The family of Or Ashkar, 32, who died on March 20 of a bullet wound sustained during a terror attack in Tel Aviv on March 9, donated his organs to five people.

Ashkar’s heart was transplanted into a 65-year-old man. A 75-year-old man received his liver. A 52-year-old and a 59-year-old each received a kidney. And a liver lobe was transplanted into a one-year-old.

The heart transplant, which went to Yedidya Sulimani, a father of four and grandfather of 11, was “complex” because the patient had an artificial heart implanted previously, Israel National News reported.

Professor Dan Aravot, head of Beilinson Hospital’s Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, said: “The operation took hours since we needed to disconnect the artificial heart and connect the organic one. Yedidya received a strong heart, in good condition, of a young athlete, which can help him quickly recuperate and have a long life.

“Following the transplant, he is already breathing independently and communicating with his family and the medical team. I am very satisfied with Yedidya’s recuperation process, and we will accompany him until he returns to a quality routine.”

Yedidya said, “I was so moved when I was informed about the donation, and I immediately connected it to what I heard in the media about Or Eshkar. I am very thankful to the family.”

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Ashkar was mortally wounded when a Hamas member from Ni’lin beyond the Green Line opened fire outside a cafe on the corner of Dizengoff and Ben-Gurion streets in the city center.

The terrorist also shot Rotem Mansano, 34, and Michael Osdon, 36.

The three Israeli friends were on their way to a wedding when they were attacked. The terrorist fled the scene after the shooting, while firing at other people, before being killed in a shootout with police officers.

“Or came to us after extensive resuscitation attempts in the field, which were ongoing in the hospital, and he was immediately taken to the operating room where against all odds doctors managed to stabilize his condition,” said Roni Gamzu, director of Ichilov Hospital.

“Unfortunately, the … wounds were fatal, and after a lengthy struggle over a number of days … we were forced to declare his death,” he added.

The attack was the latest in a wave of terrorism to strike Israel.

On March 19, a terrorist opened fire at a car on Route 60 in the Arab village of Huwara, just outside Nablus, seriously injuring 41-year-old David Stern. Stern was able to shoot and partially incapacitate the terrorist, identified as Leith Nazar, 28, a resident of the village of Madama near Nablus (biblical Shechem).

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On Feb. 26, a Palestinian attacker gunned down brothers Hallel Menachem and Yagel Yaakov Yaniv, also on Route 60 in Huwara.

The next day, Palestinian terrorists killed Israeli-American Elan Ganeles near the Beit Ha’arava Junction, close to Jericho in the Jordan Valley.

Earlier in February, a terrorist attack in Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood claimed the lives of Yaakov Israel Paley, 6, his brother, Asher Menachem Paley, 8, and 20-year-old Alter Shlomo Lederman. Three days later, Border Police Staff Sgt. Asil Sawaed, 22, died of wounds sustained in a terrorist attack at a checkpoint to Shuafat in Jerusalem.

On Jan. 27, seven people were killed and several others were wounded in a terrorist shooting rampage at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighborhood.