Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

11-Year-Old Israeli Girl Improves After West Bank Firebomb Attack

An 11-year-old Israeli girl severely injured in a firebomb attack in the West Bank is showing signs of improvement.

Ayala Shapira was rushed to the Chaim Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv after the attack Thursday evening. She had severe burns to her upper body and face. Her father sustained minor injuries in the attack on their car.

Doctors treating Shapira told Army Radio Friday that her condition had improved slightly overnight but that her life is still in danger. She is being kept under sedation at the hospital’s emergency ward where doctors are trying to stabilize her condition.

“She has a very severe injury because she has a deep burn in the facial area and the scalp,” said Eyal Winkler, director of Sheba’s plastic surgery department. “We are hoping for the best. It will be a long, protracted treatment with ups and downs.”

Avner Shapira was driving his daughter to their West Bank settlement El Matan from Bar Ilan University, where she attended a math class for gifted students, the news site Ynet.co.il reported. Avner said he saw a man ignite a firebomb and hurl it at the car, where it hit his daughter’s seat.

Army forces are searching for the individuals responsible for the attack.

Separately, on Friday two Border Police officers, ages 19 and 35, sustained minor injuries in Jerusalem’s Old City from an unidentified individual who stabbed them in the neck and arm and escaped.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.