Netanya victim was stabbed on eve of daughter's wedding

62-year-old Luba Gadimov is still in hospital with back wounds, says she is unlikely to attend the nuptials

Luba Gadimov, one of two Israelis wounded in a Thursday evening terror attack in Netanya, was preparing for her daughter’s wedding Friday when she was stabbed.

The 62-year-old was outside her hairdresser’s salon on the eve of the nuptials when the Palestinian terrorist from the West Bank city of Tulkarem stabbed her in the back.

The second victim, an unnamed man said to be around 40 years of age, sustained serious injuries from multiple stab wounds to the upper body. The assailant was shot dead at the scene by an armed civilian. Reports named him as 40-year-old Wael Abu Saleh.

Gadimov is in stable condition with light wounds, the Walla news website reported Friday morning. She is being treated in Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, and it was unclear whether she would be released in time for the wedding.

“I feel fine, weak because I lost a lot of blood,” she told Channel 2 from her hospital bed Thursday night. “I don’t think I will be at the wedding, my condition is not so good.”

Recalling the attack, Gadimov said she felt “a strong blow to the back,” and “saw a lot of blood coming out.”

“I heard the hairdresser screaming and I immediately realized it was a terror attack,” she said. “Everyone was shouting ‘Terrorist, terrorist.’ I was conscious the whole time and I heard everything.”

The bride-to-be, Marina Sarkov, said she had been in the final stages of preparations for her big day in Tel Aviv when she learned of her mother’s attack.

“She was fully conscious, she was wounded in the back and she has swelling in her neck,” Sarkov said Thursday night.

Marina Sarkov talks to reporters from the hospital where her mother was being treated for wounds sustained in a stabbing attack in Netanya on June 30, 2016 (screen capture: Channel 2) — Marina Sarkov talks to reporters from the hospital where her mother was being treated for wounds sustained in a stabbing attack in Netanya on June 30, 2016. (screen capture: Channel 2)

“She was at the salon having her hair done for my wedding tomorrow. She was outside with color on her hair when she hard everyone shouting, and felt blood on herself. She screamed for people to call an ambulance, and did not understand what was happening.”

Sarkov added: “I want to believe that she will be okay for [the wedding] but that depends on the doctors. I am trying to be strong and to laugh, because she knows that I am getting married tomorrow and I am pregnant, and so she is being strong for me.”

“The main thing is that there is a wedding,” said the mother of the bride.