Deep neck wounds damaged her spine and blood vessels, but her life is not in immediate danger, says trauma unit head

Paramedics and police at the scene of a stabbing attack in Jerusalem on September 19, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Paramedics and police at the scene of a stabbing attack in Jerusalem on September 19, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

 

The condition of a 38-year-old policewoman seriously injured in a stabbing attack Monday outside Jerusalem’s Old City was still being described as “very serious but stable” a day later.

Dr. Ofer Marin, head of the trauma unit at the capital’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, told Army Radio Tuesday morning that she “arrived in very serious condition, to our regret with a very deep wound in her neck that also affected her blood vessels. The injury also caused damage to her spine and her condition at this time is very serious but stable.”

Marin said her life was not in immediate danger but stressed that the injury was grave.

A second officer, aged 45, who was also stabbed in the attack, was taken in a conscious state to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem with multiple stab wounds to his upper body. His condition was described as moderate.

Immediately after he was stabbed, the officer pulled his gun and shot the attacker, 20-year-old Ayman Kurd, of the capital’s Ras al-Amoud neighborhood, critically wounding him.

Police subsequently arrested his three brothers on suspicion of expressing support for the stabbings. Officers are investigating whether they helped their brother plan and carry out the attack.

Footage from a security camera at the scene showed Kurd approaching the officers from behind, and stabbing them repeatedly before being shot.

Also Monday, Border Police officers shot and killed two Palestinian men apparently attempting to carry out a stabbing attack near the Tomb of the Patriarchs pilgrimage site in Hebron.

They approached the officers before taking out knives and attempting to stab a group of them, police said. The Border Police officers opened fire, hitting both of them, police said.

One was pronounced dead a short while later, while the other was taken to Shaare Zedek in critical condition and died of his wounds a few hours later.

As reported by The Times of Israel