Description

The Biton family's car after the stone-throwing attack, in 2013. Photo by Oren Ziv

Adelle Biton never fully recovered from attack which also left her mother and two sisters wounded.
By Chaim Levinson for Haaretz
| Feb. 17, 2015 | 8:30 PM

Adelle Biton, the four-year-old child who was critically injured in a stone-throwing incident near the settlement of Ariel two years ago, died in Petach Tikva’s Schneider Hospital on Tuesday evening from complications following a lung infection.

Biton and her family were driving from their home in the settlement of Yakir to the center of Israel in March 2013 when a stone thrown at the vehicle caused it to go out of control and crash into a truck that was parked at the side of the road – also due to stone-throwing.

Her mother and two sisters were moderately injured in the attack, but Biton was taken to Schneider Hospital in critical condition with a serious head wound, and never fully recovered.

From Schneider, Biton was relocated to the Levenstein rehabilitation center and in September last year she was released to home care.

Biton began coughing earlier this week and was diagnosed with a lung infection. Her condition deteriorated quickly.

“I am hopeful that we will see another miracle, as has happened previously,” her mother said in a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon. “The doctors are doing all they can and I don’t have words to describe their supreme dedication; and support them fully.

“There’s no doubt that this is a consequence of the neurological damage that she suffered and that has made her treatment so difficult.

Every little thing puts her under immense stress. I feel that this little girl is not just my child but everyone’s child. There is no one who doesn’t pray for her.”

Adelle Biton died a few hours later.

Five youths from the neighboring village of Kif el-Hares were indicted for throwing the stones that struck the Biton car. Their case is currently being heard in a military court.