IDF soldier critically injured in Givat Assaf attack released from hospital

Netanel Felber who remains unconscious but stable has been transferred to rehabilitation.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
An IDF soldier maps out the home of the Barghouti brother terrorists (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
An IDF soldier maps out the home of the Barghouti brother terrorists
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
The IDF soldier who was critically wounded in a West Bank shooting attack in December was released from the hospital on Wednesday and transferred to Tel Hashomer hospital for rehabilitation.
Nathaniel Felber who served in the Netzah Yehuda battalion, was critically injured after Asam Barghouti opened fire at troops near the Givat Assaf outpost, killing St.-Sgt. Yuval Mor Yosef and Sergeant Yosef Cohen. A female resident of Beit El was also wounded in the attack.
He was evacuated to Hadassah University Medical Center in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem and underwent several surgeries at the neurosurgery unit while there. Though he remains unconscious for more than two months after the attack, he is in stable condition.
Barghouti was arrested on January 8 in a joint operation by the IDF, Israel Police and Shin Bet in the West Bank village of Abu Shukheidim, north of Ramallah, at the home of one of his collaborators following a massive manhunt throughout the West Bank.
Barghouti, along with his brother Saleh, are suspected of carrying out a shooting attack at Ofra Junction on December 9, 2018 which injured seven Israeli. One newborn child, who was delivered prematurely as a result of the attack, died three days later.
Saleh was shot dead by IDF troops during an arrest attempt on December 12, a day before the Givat Assaf shooting.
The two come from a Hamas-affiliated family and Asam Barghouti has spent 11 years in Israeli prisons for security-related crimes, including plans to abduct IDF soldiers.
Hamas’s military wing, the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, took credit for the Ofra attack shortly after Saleh Barghouti was killed by IDF troops, praising it and saying that it proved that the resistance was alive in the West Bank.
The group also released a statement praising the Givat Assaf shooting and warning of more attacks to come.
“The enemy must not dream of security... the West Bank will burn the occupiers and harass them in ways that the enemy does not expect,” read the statement adding that “all attempts to destroy our resistance and take our weapons in the West Bank will fail.”


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