Appeal launched to help policewoman paralysed after terror attack move back in with her family

Ms Yacobian said that hospital life was deadly boring and she wants to — and is ready to — go home. “From 3pm you sit, you sit, nothing to do,” she said.

Now, a man who bumped into her father has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise NIS 1 million (£215,000) to enable her to buy and adapt a suitable home in Jerusalem. “This woman, like the policemen killed last Friday, was protecting Israel,” said Uri Schechter, adding: “So we need to take care of her.”

Mr Schechter, a senior staffer from the Tzohar organisation of modern-Orthodox rabbis, happened to meet Mrs Yacobian’s father when he was lost in Jerusalem and asking for directions.

“I met a Jewish person who was sad, said ‘what’s wrong?’ and he told me a little about his daughter,” Mr Schechter said.

The story touched him deeply. “She’s in hospital for nine months, and it’s like she’s in prison,” Mr Schechter said. He called friends and they decided to set up the campaign, which is already almost a third of the way towards its target.

He said felt a strong duty to help the family: “They are a simple people — the husband is a trader at [the Jerusalem market] Mahane Yehuda and they don’t have money or connections,” Mr Schechter said.