Israeli Toddler Dies of Injuries From 2013 West Bank Rock Attack
Adele Biton, a 4-year-old girl who was severely injured in a Palestinian rock attack two years ago, has died.
Adele died Tuesday evening at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petach Tikvah from complications of a lung infection. She had remained in an unconscious state since the West Bank attack on her mother’s car on March 14, 2013.
“There’s no doubt that this is a consequence of the neurological damage that she suffered and that has made her treatment so difficult,” her mother, Adva, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
The statement added, “I feel that this little girl is not just my child but everyone’s child. There is no one who doesn’t pray for her.”
Adva Biton was driving her three young daughters near the near the Ariel settlement when her car swerved after being hit by rocks thrown by two Palestinian teens and struck a truck. The family had been driving from their home in the West Bank settlement of Yakir to central Israel.
Adele, then 2, suffered a serious head wound. Her sisters, ages 4 and 5, were moderately wounded.
Last September, Adele returned home after the rehab facility said it could not do anything more for her.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
