Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

11-Year-Old Ayala Shapira Faces Medical Ordeal After Firebomb Attack

Two Palestinian teens were arrested in connection with the firebomb attack on a West Bank road that left an 11-year-old Israeli girl fighting for her life.

The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service said in a statement released Saturday night that the two were arrested Thursday night in the hours following the attack in the village of Azzoun, located next to Maale Shomron, the home of Ayala Shapira, 11, and her father, Avner, of the El Matan outpost, who also was injured in the attack.

One of the arrested teens confessed to throwing the firebomb, according to the IDF.

Ten other Palestinians from the village reportedly were taken in for questioning.

Ayala Shapira, who suffered third-degree burns over most of her body, remained in serious but stable condition on Saturday night, according to reports.

Doctors at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv reportedly operated on her Saturday, the first of many operations that she will require.

“I told her parents the struggle will be long, and the beginning consists of stabilizing her, reviving her, and getting her to a state where we can begin to reconstruct her face,” Prof. Eyal Winkler, director of the Plastic Surgery Department at Sheba Medical Center, told Ynet. “In this kind of situation, hospitalization last two to three months, and facial reconstruction can lost even longer. But we are full of desire to succeed and are optimistic.”

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.