Yehuda Glick on the Temple Mount (file)
Yehuda Glick on the Temple Mount (file)Yossi Zamir/Flash 90

Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick's condition remains critical after an assassination attempt on his life by an Arab terrorist in Jerusalem on Wednesday night, but his condition continues to improve.

Over the course of Thursday night, Yedioth Aharonoth reports that a light improvement was noted in Glick's status, in addition to the improvement reported Thursday evening.

Glick remains in the intensive care unit of Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem and is still classified as being critically wounded; likewise he is still anesthetized and on artificial respiration.

Founder and head of the LIBA Initiative for Jewish Freedom on the Temple Mount, Glick was shot three times in the upper body as he left the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem Wednesday night.

There he had spoken against the discrimination by which the Jordanian Waqf (Islamic trust), which remains in de facto control of the Temple Mount, continues to ban Jewish prayer rights on the holiest site in Judaism, and by which the police go along with their edicts despite Israeli laws defending religious freedoms.

He underwent operations for several hours, for injuries in the chest and stomach, and part of his lung was removed. His situation stabilized and he underwent another operation on Thursday.

Glick's would-be assassin Mu'taz Hijazi, a member of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization who surprisingly was employed at a restaurant in the Begin Center despite having been released from jail in 2012 after serving a sentence for terrorism, was killed in a gunfight with security forces Wednesday night.

Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) has revealed that Hijazi was likely responsible for August's shooting attack on a soldier near Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, after police found and examined the scooter used in both incidents. 

Glick has been visited in the hospital by his mother, who told Arutz Sheva on Thursday her son was conscious and able to hold her hand, and by Knesset Chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud), who compared the assassination attempt with the murder of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Members of the public are urged to pray for the speedy recovery of Yehuda Yehoshua ben Ita Breindel.