From her hospital bed, teen wounded in terror attack gives thanks for prayers

Shuva Malka, an 18-year-old woman who was stabbed and critically wounded in a suspected terror attack in the northern city of Afula last week, made a rapid recovery, and on Sunday held a press conference from her hospital bed to give thanks to the Jewish people for praying for her and supporting her.

Lying in her bed, Malka told the assembled camera crews that the prayers had strengthened her and her family and had reached heaven. Flanked by her parents, the Orthodox Malka also thanked God, security services and the doctors and medical staff who saved her life.

Professor Doron Kopelman, director of the surgical team at the Haemek medical center, where Malka is being treated, said that her condition was continuing to improve.

“She is recovering from a very serious, dramatic stabbing, and there was a huge risk to her life,” he said. “She will remain with us for a few more days and I hope that she will be able to gradually return to normal life.”

Her suspected attacker is a Palestinian man in his 20s from the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

The suspect, who initially fled the scene and was arrested after a brief manhunt, was also in the hospital, as police shot him in the leg when he did not heed calls to stop running.

Police said last Monday that they were still investigating the motive for the stabbing, but were working under the assumption that it was a terror attack.