Two days after he was seriously wounded in a terrorist shooting attack in the Arab village of Huwara in Samaria, David Stern spoke from his hospital bed in Beilinson Medical Center in Petah Tikva.
Stern thanked the public for the prayers, support and love he received from the people of Israel for his recovery. Stern then appealed to the government and the security forces to act to protect the security of the residents of Samaria, and to take the necessary steps to prevent the next attack.
"On Sunday I was driving with my wife in Huwara towards Jerusalem. I arrived at the square, and the terrorist was crossing the road, I stopped for him to cross the road," Stern said.
Stern noticed that the terrorist was hiding one of his hands in a suspicious manner. "I immediately started reaching for my gun. "The terrorist turned towards me and we started shooting at each other at almost the same time. From the side window I saw that he ran away after firing ten or so bullets. . I moved the car a few hundred meters and stopped. I started putting on a tourniquet and a bandage, and after a few minutes the ambulance arrived and they took me to the hospital."
"I want to say first of all thanks to G-d and to all the people of Israel for their prayers and support. I really feel everyone's love. Thank you very much," he said. "I want to say that the barriers must be restored, we cannot continue like this, we miraculously survived the attack, but what will happen to the next family?"
Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan joined Stern's call for greater security in the region. "Unfortunately, the residents of Samaria feel abandoned in the face of the wave of terrorism that the Palestinian Authority is trying to stir up in the Huwara and Shechem area. They closed the shops in Huwara after the attack, after two days they opened them quietly. What happened, has the situation changed? The security checkpoints are not being returned, as should have been done already following the murder of Hallel and Yagel [Yaniv], may G-d avenge them. David Stern was almost murdered and miraculously survived as a result of his resourcefulness. I demand that they stop this reality and restore our security. We feel neglected and we will not accept that our residents are abandoned."