IDF officer wounded in Hizme blast stable

Judea and Samaria Police have placed a media blackout on details of the investigation.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Updated: MAY 13, 2016 00:08
IDF soldier at West Bank checkpoint at Gush Etzion Junction. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
IDF soldier at West Bank checkpoint at Gush Etzion Junction.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
An officer who sustained serious head injuries Tuesday night when several bombs blew up near the Palestinian village of Hizme is in stable condition after undergoing 12 hours of surgery Wednesday.
Prof. Nardi Caspi, head of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department at the Hadassah Medical Center at Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, said the officer arrived at the hospital’s trauma room with injuries from shrapnel.
A lengthy surgical procedure, which was carried out by a multidisciplinary team, resulted in the surgeons successfully removing the shrapnel and treating the breakages, Caspi said.
“He is out of the surgery room, and he has been taken to the intensive care unit. At the moment his condition is stable, and he is not in a life threatening condition,” Caspi added.
Judea and Samaria Police have placed a media blackout on details of the investigation.
The incident began when an IDF unit identified a suspicious device near Hizme, near the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev, which blew up and injured the officer. A search of the area revealed that four pipe bombs had exploded. An additional five pipe bombs were found in a subsequent sweep and were deactivated by security forces.
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.