JPOST
Pray for Leiter: The importance of supporting soldiers who protect Israeli life
Editorial Board
September 25, 2026
IDF reservist Neria Leiter was seriously wounded Wednesday when a Palestinian attacker rammed a vehicle into him at a checkpoint near Beit Horon on Route 443. After hours of surgery at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, doctors said his condition had stabilized, but his life remained in danger. His family has asked the public to pray for Neria Dov ben Chana. His father, Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, flew home from New York. At the hospital on Thursday, he spoke about a previous journey through grief. In November 2023, his eldest son, Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidya Leiter, was killed fighting in Gaza. “He died instantly,” Yechiel said. This time, he said, the family could gather at Neria’s bedside while doctors worked to save him, and they could pray together and ask others to join them. “His life is still in danger,” he told reporters. READ MORE
TIMES OF ISRAEL Ambassador Leiter says he’s ‘full of hope’ for son seriously wounded in West Bank ramming attack Israel’s Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter rushed back to Israel Thursday after his son was seriously wounded the previous day in a car-ramming attack in the West Bank, telling reporters that he was “full of hope” for his recovery and asserting that Palestinian violence in the territory was aimed at “uprooting the Jews from this land.” Speaking at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, where his son Neria remains hospitalized in serious condition, Leiter said he was “full of hope that he will come out of it this time and return to us safe and sound.” Neria Leiter was seriously wounded Wednesday when Palestinian assailant Mahmoud Mohammad Sliman, 29, of the nearby village of Beit Ur al-Tahta, rammed him at the “Bell” checkpoint along Route 443 before being shot dead by troops. Leiter was taken unconscious to Shaare Zedek, where he underwent emergency brain surgery.