A family that already buried one son killed in Gaza is now praying for another after the son of Israel’s ambassador to the United States was critically wounded Wednesday in a vehicle-ramming attack in the West Bank.
Neria Leiter, a reserve soldier and the son of Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, was manning a checkpoint near Beit Horon when a vehicle was driven toward Israeli forces, according to Israeli authorities. Leiter was seriously injured and rushed to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where doctors are fighting to save his life.
The driver was identified by Palestinian authorities as 29-year-old Mahmoud Muhammad Mahmoud Suleiman. He was shot and killed at the scene by Israeli forces.
The attack comes at a moment of heightened tensions in the West Bank and just one day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address the United Nations.
But for Ambassador Leiter, the geopolitical significance of the attack is secondary to something far more personal.
His family has already endured the loss of a son.
Leiter’s older son, Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidya Leiter, was killed while serving in northern Gaza in November 2023, in the first weeks of the war that followed the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Now the ambassador is asking for prayers for Neria.
“Neria needs a miracle,” Leiter said in a statement, thanking the Israel Defense Forces, the medical team treating his son and those praying for his recovery.
“I believe in the power of prayer, and I believe that when the people of Israel unite, miracles happen,” he said.
According to Leiter, Neria continued serving in the reserves even after his brother was killed and has spent hundreds of days on reserve duty across multiple fronts since Oct. 7.
The attack occurred along Route 443 near the Maccabim checkpoint, in the area of Beit Horon. Israeli police said the vehicle drove toward security forces at the checkpoint before the soldier was struck and wounded.
The incident was quickly treated by Israeli officials as a terror attack, while Palestinian authorities confirmed the identity and death of the driver.
The human cost is painfully familiar.
For the Leiter family, the attack is not an abstract headline about another flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is another son fighting for his life after another son was killed in combat.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon expressed solidarity with Leiter and his family, saying that “all of Israel” was praying for Neria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said he, his wife and the country were praying for a miracle for the wounded reservist.
The attack also comes after a separate deadly shooting in the West Bank days earlier, underscoring the continuing volatility across the region. Violence has intensified in the territory since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault and the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
For Israel, the challenge remains brutally simple: protect civilians and soldiers from attacks while confronting an environment in which violence can erupt with little warning.
For the Leiter family, however, there is only one priority tonight.
Neria.
His father has already known the unbearable pain of receiving news that a son will never come home. Now he is asking for something different — time, healing and a miracle.
And as doctors fight to save Neria Leiter’s life, an entire nation is watching and praying alongside a father who has already sacrificed more than any parent should ever have to bear.
