Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, landed in Israel Thursday morning and went directly to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where his son Neriya remains hospitalized after being critically wounded in Wednesday’s terror attack on Route 443.
Master Sgt. (res.) Neriya Leiter, 38, underwent complex brain surgery that lasted several hours Wednesday night. Shaare Zedek said his condition remained extremely serious and his life was still in danger.
“Extensive teams, including surgical and intensive care staff, continue to provide Neriya with life-saving treatment, while social workers are closely and sensitively supporting his family at all times,” the hospital said.
Neriya, a reservist and resident of Havat Yair in the northern West Bank, was among the personnel in a police vehicle at the checkpoint when a terrorist rammed him with a car. The assailant was killed by an IDF force at the scene.
His mother, Hannah, described Thursday morning how the family learned of the attack.
“His wife started crying and came to tell me,” she told Army Radio. “At first she told me, ‘I thought it was an explosive device.’”
“We can’t get used to this. We’re still in shock,” she said. “His wife keeps saying, ‘I can’t believe this is happening to us.’”
Master Sgt. (res.) Neriya Leiter
The Leiter family lost another son, Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidya Leiter, during the war in Gaza. Moshe, 39, a company commander in Battalion 697 of Brigade 551 and a former Shaldag commander, was killed in northern Gaza on Nov. 10, 2023.
“After Moshe fell, Neriya wanted so badly to hold all of us together,” Hannah said. “He helped all of us. He held our hand. He was amazing.”
Neriya continued serving in the reserves after his brother’s death and accumulated hundreds of days of reserve duty on several fronts.
In a Facebook post in May, after another reserve deployment, he wrote that returning to service after Moshe’s death had been an agonizing decision.
“As a bereaved brother, after my brother Moshe, of blessed memory, was killed in the war, the decision to return to reserve duty was not easy at all,” he wrote. “Something in my heart truly tore. But I could not stand on the sidelines while my friends did one deployment after another.”
Despite the personal toll, he wrote that he regarded his service as “an enormous privilege.”
On Wednesday, before returning to Israel, Yechiel Leiter appealed for prayers for his son.
“I believe in the power of prayer, and I believe that when the people of Israel unite, miracles happen,” he wrote. “Neriya needs a miracle.”
The family said Thursday that amid the crisis, a granddaughter was born overnight to one of the Leiter daughters.