Son of Israel’s US ambassador seriously injured in West Bank ramming attack

JTA – A Palestinian assailant seriously wounded the son of Israeli ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter on Wednesday in a car-ramming attack in the West Bank, where he was serving as an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservist at a checkpoint. 

Neria Leiter, 38, was struck at the Maccabim checkpoint on Route 443 by a Palestinian driver who drove toward a joint police-IDF patrol. Troops at the scene shot and killed the attacker, according to the IDF. 

Neria continued serving in the reserves after his older brother, Major Moshe Yedidya Leiter, a father of six who was completing his medical training, was killed in Gaza in November 2023. His father said Neria has served hundreds of days on multiple fronts since the deadly Hamas raids that launched the war on 7 October. 

Israeli authorities identified the attacker as Mahmoud Mohammad Suleiman, 29, from the nearby Palestinian village of Beit Ur al-Tahta, west of Ramallah. 

Leiter suffered a severe head injury and was taken unconscious to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, where he was sedated and ventilated. 

His father had been set to accompany Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his participation on Thursday in the high-level opening session of the UN General Assembly. Instead he flew to Israel to be with his son. 

“I believe in the power of prayer, and I believe that when the people of Israel unite, miracles happen,” Leiter wrote on X. “Neria needs a miracle. 

“Palestinian terrorism seeks to uproot the people of Israel from their land,” Yechiel Leiter wrote. “They choose death – we choose life.” 

Netanyahu visited the Leiter family in the hospital before leaving for New York, issuing a message asking the public to pray for Neria’s recovery. 

“The entire nation is with you,” Netanyahu wrote on X. 

In a post on X, spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, Tal Naim, said she had been with the ambassador in New York when he had received the news that his son had been injured. The two had been preparing for a round of media interviews. 

In an interview with Newsmax shortly before learning about his son, Leiter spoke about what he called “the unimaginable reality we have been living with in Israel”, Naim recalled. 

“We sent in our troops on the ground to prevent mass bombings, we lost our children because of this, and still get accused of committing a genocide,” Leiter said. 

Earlier this year, Neria wrote about the difficulty of returning to combat as a bereaved brother. 

In a May post on social media, Neria wrote, “As a bereaved brother, the decision to return to reserve duty was not simple at all”, but added that nevertheless, he could not stand on the sidelines while his friends continued serving repeated tours. 

“Despite all the difficulty, I feel an enormous privilege,” he wrote, “to take part in these historic moments, to defend our home.” 

The attack came three days after a Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli father of six, Netanel Shukron, near Neve Tzuf, northwest of Ramallah, amid a recent spate of attacks in the West Bank. 

Following Wednesday’s ramming attack, the IDF announced additional reinforcements in the West Bank, including the deployment of the 98th Division headquarters to the area.