'If he recovers, it will be a miracle'

David Chriqui of Rishon Lezion was shot in the head at close range late Friday night. A colleague was also wounded in the attack.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
The 19-year-old border policeman shot by a suspected Palestinian assailant near Lions Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem remained in critical condition Sunday, hospital officials said. David Chriqui of Rishon Lezion was shot in the head at close range late Friday night. A colleague was also wounded in the attack. The officer was rushed to Hadassah-University Hospital at Ein Kerem, where he was operated on early Saturday morning for his severe head wounds. During the day Saturday, his condition deteriorated to critical, and had not stabilized by Sunday, a hospital spokeswoman said. "We are praying for a miracle," said Dr. Yuval Weiss, Director of Hadassah-University Hospital at Ein Kerem. Weiss said that it was hard to predict if the border policeman, who remained unconscious nearly 48 hours after the attack, would recover, and what his condition would be if he regained consciousness. He is being treated in the intensive care unit. "We are always optimistic and never give up but his wounds are very, very severe," he said. Weiss said that Chriqui's young age and his physical strength could work in his favor and that doctors were doing everything in their power to save him. "We won't give up," he said. "If he recovers it will be a miracle." Meanwhile, Jerusalem police on Sunday continued to search for the assailant who carried out the attack. A court-imposed gag order issued at the behest of police prevents publication of any progress in the police investigation. According to an initial police probe, the gunman apparently took advantage of a minute when the police officers had turned their back on a nearby Muslim cemetery - where the attacker came from and fled to after the shooting - to take a drink of water on a warm summer evening. It remained unclear Sunday if the attacker was an Arab resident of east Jerusalem - as investigators suspect - or had slipped into the city from the nearby West Bank.