Yehudah Glick’s condition ‘improves slightly’

Right-wing activist Rabbi Yehudah Glick, who was shot Wednesday in an attempted assassination, has shown some signs of improvement but remains in serious condition, his doctors said Thursday evening.

Dr. Ofer Merin, the Deputy Director General of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, said Glick’s condition had “improved slightly” in the last few hours, and reported that some of his vital signs were returning to normal levels.

According to Merin, Glick underwent extensive MRI and CT scans Thursday afternoon to confirm that doctors hadn’t missed any internal injuries when he was brought to the emergency room Wednesday night.

“During emergency surgery, sometimes it is difficult to identify all of the patient’s injuries, but the good news is, the scans showed us that there were no injuries that we didn’t know about at first,” Merin explained.

Merin also said scans showed the emergency surgery had stopped internal bleeding caused by the four bullets fired at his upper body at point-blank range.

“I would describe his condition as fairly stable,” he said. “If his condition remains stable, we will operate again tomorrow to repair damage done to his abdomen that we were not able to address during yesterday’s life-saving surgery.”

Glick is heavily sedated and is breathing aided by a respirator since coming out of Wednesday’s surgery.

“Although I am optimistic about the progress he has made, I cannot say that he is out of danger. We will be able to make a more accurate prognosis in the coming days,” Merin said in an interview on Israel Radio.

Glick was rushed to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center after being shot four times outside Jerusalem’s Menachem Begin Center, where he opened and spoke at a conference promoting increased Jewish control over the Temple Mount holy site.

Police suspect Mu’taz Hijazi, an East Jerusalem Palestinian, of carrying out the attack. Hijazi was killed in a firefight with police in Jerusalem’s Abu Tor neighborhood Thursday morning.