Dr. Ofer Merin
Dr. Ofer MerinHadas Parush, Flash 90

Do Arab terrorists undergo some kind of preparation that teaches them how to cause maximum damage when stabbing Jews? One of the most prominent doctors treating terror victims in Jerusalem hinted Monday that this may indeed be so.

Dr. Ofer Merin, Director of the Trauma Unit at Shaare Tzedek Hospital and Deputy Director of the hospital, estimated that the terrorists know exactly what part of the body to plunge their knives into, in order to murder.

"The terrorists know where to strike, it's not something random," he told participants at a Magen David Adom Conference on emergency medicine, according to a report on Israel Hayom.

"Three weeks ago," he recounted, "a casualty who is still hospitalized was brought to us with four stab wounds: one in the lungs, one in the upper atrium, one in the right ventricle and one in the neck. It's as if someone read the manual, and then the casualty came in with two punctures in the heart. You learn from that, that they know where to strike."

The casualty is still in very serious condition in the ICU, where he is under artificial respiration and anesthetized.  

"In the scan, we were shocked to see the knife lodged in the spinal column, and called an orthopedist to remove it," Dr. Merin said. "Removal of a knife is carried out in an operating room, in order to avoid uncontrollable bleeding."

MDA Director Eli Bin said that all MDA ambulances will soon be equipped with respirators and automatic heart massagers. Calls to the emergency line are answered within four seconds, he said.

Security officials in Israel have said, since the start of the current Arab terror wave, that the attackers are lone operators and are not trained or directed as part of a terror network. Dr. Merin's testimony implies that this may not be the case, and that the apparently spontaneous attacks may be part of a larger infrastructure after all.