Israeli Ambassador’s Son Breathing Independently After Near-Fatal Terror Attack

The development marks an important step in his recovery after he arrived at the hospital without a pulse following the September 23 attack.

By United with Israel Staff

Neriyah Leiter, the son of Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, was discharged from Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center on Wednesday, more than six weeks after suffering life-threatening injuries in a Palestinian terrorist car-ramming attack.

Although he remains unconscious, Neriyah is now breathing independently and has been transferred to a specialized neurological rehabilitation facility for continued treatment of his severe head injuries.

The development marks an important step in his recovery after he arrived at the hospital without a pulse following the September 23 attack.

Neriyah, a 39-year-old father of four and IDF reservist, was critically wounded when a Palestinian terrorist rammed his vehicle into soldiers at a checkpoint along Route 443 near Beit Horon, northwest of Jerusalem.

Israeli security forces shot and killed the attacker at the scene.

In a statement following his discharge, Shaare Zedek praised the extraordinary strength demonstrated by the Leiter family throughout Neriyah’s hospitalization.

The hospital said the medical teams who treated Neriyah and accompanied his family described their resilience as an inspiring example of courage and expressed their hopes and prayers for his recovery.

The Leiter family thanked the hospital’s medical staff for their dedicated and professional care, which they said went above and beyond expectations.

The family also requested privacy and urged the public to continue praying for Neriyah’s recovery.

In the hours following the attack, Ambassador Leiter appealed to the public for prayers as doctors fought to save his son’s life, expressing his belief in the power of prayer and the ability of the Jewish people to unite in times of crisis.

The tragedy struck a family already devastated by the loss of another son, Maj. (Res.) Moshe Yedidya Leiter, who was killed fighting Hamas terrorists in northern Gaza on November 10, 2023.

Despite his brother’s death, Neriyah continued serving in the IDF reserves, completing hundreds of days of military service since the October 7 massacre.

Last week, as the third anniversary of Moshe’s death approached, Ambassador Leiter shared an emotional message reflecting on the loss of one son and his desperate prayers for the recovery of another.

“As we gathered around his grave on Mt. Herzl, I asked myself, yet again: how are we supposed to go on living without him?” he wrote.

“We mustn’t give in to sadness. It only harms us, and closes us off from the world. Rather, I’d like to think that Moshe would encourage us to maintain a living memory of him.”

The ambassador then turned to Neriyah, recalling how he had arrived at the hospital without a pulse and describing the prayer he offered at Moshe’s grave.

“It’s even possible that he briefly visited his older brother, hanging between the heaven and the earth,” he wrote.

“And, as I was standing at Moshe’s grave, I had to ask him for help. I asked him to amplify the prayers we send from here, and to plead with God to bring Neriyah back to us, and make him whole again.”

Leiter concluded with a call for national unity and determination in the face of terrorism.

“In the face of the murderous ideology that robbed me of one son, and nearly cost me another, we must do as Moshe would have done, were he still here: stand together, undivided, and fight for our country, which we love so dearly.”