A pregnant woman in her 30’s was stabbed in the Judean town of Tekoa, southeast of Jerusalem, on Monday, leaving her in moderate to serious condition. Her attacker, a 15-year-old Palestinian, was neutralized.
Michal Froman was in a clothing store when the terrorist stabbed her in her upper body and then fled. He was shot and critically injured nearby.
Froman, who is 4 and a half months pregnant, was evacuated to the Shaare Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for treatment, where her condition was first classified as serious but, following surgery, the danger was downgraded to moderate.
Photos from the scene of the stabbing in Tekoa today. pic.twitter.com/YacUZiCc1e
— Joshua Davidovich (@JMDavido) January 18, 2016
The latest Muslim terror stabbing victim in Israel is Michal Fruman. She is 18 weeks pregnant 🙁 pic.twitter.com/lmyLdoZZHE
— Avi Abelow (@AviAbelow) January 18, 2016
Dr. Ofer Marin, the head of the Shaare Tzedek trauma unit, reported in a statement that her condition had stabilized. “She has been treated and her condition is stable,” he said said. “She has been transferred to radiology. The woman is 18 weeks’ pregnant and initial examinations indicated that the fetus is healthy. She is fully conscious and her life is not in danger.”
Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedic Yoni Silman said that Froman was conscious when the ambulance arrived.
The attacker, a teenager from Bethlehem, had entered Tekoa, a closed community, by way of a hole in the perimeter fence, according to reports. He was neutralized near a horse farm. Following the attack, Tekoa residents received text messages instructing them to stay in their homes. Community leaders also told residents who were employing Palestinian workers to send them home for the day.
An IDF spokesperson said that following recent terror attacks, special security measures would be taken in all of the communities in the Etzion block, including the measure of expelling Palestinian workers from the entire area.
Froman is the daughter-in-law of the well-known Rabbi Menachem Froman, who passed away in 2013. Rabbi Froman, the former religious leader of Tekoa, was an activist for peace between Jews and Palestinians, believing that it was possible for the two groups to live together in harmony.
Harmony, however, has been far from the Judean region where he lived. One day prior to the attack on Froman, Dafna Meir, a mother of six, was brutally murdered when a Palestinian terrorist broke into her home in Otniel and stabbed her to death. The hunt for the attacker is still underway.
