Amit Steinhart
Terror victim says slain guard 'saved my life'
Amit Steinhart, who survived a terror attack in which a Palestinian shot to death three security personnel near the settlement of Har Adar, says Or Arish, who was among the dead, saved his life; 'Amit wanted to be at his funeral.'
A man wounded in a terror attack
in Har Adar Tuesday morning says his life was saved by Or Arish, one of the three security personnel who were killed in the close-range shooting carried out by Nimer Jamal.
According to his family, Steinhart said in his hospital bed that Or had saved his life.
Amit Steinhart, 33, was seriously wounded when the 37-year-old Jamal from Beit Surik produced a gun near Har Adar and shot dead Youssef Ottman, 25, Or Arish, 25, and Solomon Gavriya, 20.
Amit Steinhart
According to his family, Steinhart said in his hospital bed that Or had saved his life.
“He said ‘I want to be at my friend’s funeral’ and we explained to him that at the moment he is being treated in hospital,” said a close family member.
Amit (L) with Or Arish
“In the beginning he wasn’t able to focus. The drugs to calm him confused him and we chose not to tell him everything that had happened,” said his brother Miki. “Two hours after the operation he wanted to know the truth and we had to tell him. He was in shock.”
Steinhart, a military security coordinator, took part in the fire exchange that ensued that led to Jamal’s death.
The terrorist Nimer Jamal
He was operated on in the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem and his life was no longer in danger. His injuries have thus been downgraded to moderate.
"The surgery was successful. The 33-year-old patient was hit by a bullet in shoulder and hip. One of the bullets hit his spleen and diaphragm, and after dealing with these two organs, a team of orthopedic surgeons removed the bullets. He's been completely stabilized, is breathing on his own and is now recuperating in Hadassah's emergency care unit. He was certainly very lucky," said head of the Department of General Surgery at Hadassah Prof. Alon Pikarsky.
