The seriously injured victim of Friday’s car-ramming terror attack was named as Even Ezer Holaring, 35, from the Bnei Menashe community, and his wife urged people to pray for the father of five.
Holaring was seriously wounded when he was hit by a car driven by a Palestinian terrorist early in the morning as he stood at the Gush Etzion Junction south of Jerusalem in the West Bank.
“I am the wife of Even Ezer who was wounded in the attack this morning,” his wife said in a short video from the hospital. “His condition is very serious and I am asking every one to pray for him, Even Ezer, the son of Malka,” she said.
Holaring was taken for surgery with a head wound, surgeons at the Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem said.
“He suffered a head wound. He has an intracranial hemorrhage and will require brain surgery,” his doctor said. “He’s in serious condition, but he is stable.
Holaring, who lives in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, is from the Bnei Mensahe community.
The Bnei Menashe are Indians who claim descent from one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
Some 1,700 Bnei Menashe have settled in Israel over the past 15 years, with a further 7,000 waiting to immigrate.
Another 162 people from the community arrived on Thursday.
They say their ancestors were sent into exile by the Assyrian Empire more than 27 centuries ago, after which they wandered through Central Asia and the Far East for centuries before settling in what is now northeastern India, along the border with Burma and Bangladesh.
“I have known Even Ezer since India, before we brought him and his family to Israel in 2006,” said Michael Freund of the Shavei Israel organization that encourages the emigration to Israel of the community.
“We will do all we can to help him and his family,” said Freund. “He has five small children and we are all praying for him.”
Just after 6:30 a.m., the 17-year-old barreled his car into the first victim, a 70-year-old man, David Ramati, who sustained a light head wound, at the Efrat South Junction.
From his hospital bed, the first victim, Ramati, described seeing the Palestinian terrorist, “with a big smile on his face,” driving toward him at some 100 kilometers (60 miles) an hour. Ramati said he had a pistol and tried to shoot the 17-year-old driver, but he was hit by the car before he could.
The terrorist continued down the road to the nearby Gush Etzion Junction where he hit and seriously injured Holaring.
The army said at that point the driver got out of his car with a knife and tried to stab soldiers who were standing nearby.
“The soldiers responded by firing towards the attacker, resulting in his injury,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
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