Toddler wounded in stone-throwing attack dies 2 years later

Four-year-old Israeli girl Adele Biton died from complications of lung infection on Tuesday, two years after she was critically wounded when Palestinians threw rocks at the car she was riding in on Route 5 in Samaria.

Biton was to be laid to rest on Wednesday afternoon in Yakir.

"She was like a panther," Biton's grandmother, Rahel, said. "I fully believed she would pull through this, but today she got tired."

On March 14, 2013, Biton's mother, Adva, was driving her three daughters home to Yakir after they had visited their grandmother. Their car collided with a truck after Palestinians threw rocks at it. Adele was critically wounded, while Adele's mother and two sisters were moderately wounded.

After the attack, Adele was hospitalized for a long period of time before eventually returning home. Earlier this week, a lung infection led to her rehospitalization. Adva Biton said the infection was a result of Adele's wounds in the rock attack. "We never dreamed we'd be here again, but some things are not in our control or power," she said.

The Arab paramedic who treated Adele the night of the attack arrived at the hospital on Tuesday. "The pain is intense," he said. "I myself am an Arab, and the split I feel inside is immense. On one hand, I save people. On the other hand, my people did this. This hurts me, sometimes I choke up. I feel like crying. This year, I had a baby girl and I understand what it means to be a father. What we see here is the price of hatred. People, wake up! Adele was a baby, why did she have to die because of unjustified hatred-"