LIMASSOL, Cyprus — An Israeli man who was seriously injured in an attack outside a hotel in Cyprus says he was stabbed in the eye with a sharp object and left bleeding on the ground, while his attackers remain at large.
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Dor Twito, 24, of the southern Israeli city of Sderot, told Israel’s Channel 12 (N12) that he was assaulted last weekend outside a hotel in Limassol shortly before returning home from an extended trip abroad.
Twito said he and a friend were staying at the City of Dreams hotel when they were approached late at night by two men who asked questions in broken English. Suspecting something was wrong, Twito said he avoided identifying himself as Israeli. Moments later, after briefly speaking Hebrew during a video call, he was attacked.
“Within seconds I felt an explosion in my eye and everything went black,” Twito said. “They stabbed me with something sharp in the eye and I fell to the ground.”
He said the attackers also beat his friend as he tried to intervene. Security guards arrived only after the assailants fled, Twito said, adding that it took nearly an hour for an ambulance to arrive.
Twito was initially taken to a local hospital, where doctors told him they lacked the equipment to treat his injuries and advised him to return to Israel. He flew back the next morning and was admitted to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, where doctors performed emergency surgery.
Doctors warned the family that the eye was in critical condition and might not be salvageable. Twito has since undergone multiple operations, including a lengthy procedure to save his retina. His family said a long and difficult recovery is expected.
Twito’s father, Eran, said he believes the attack was motivated by hatred after his son spoke Hebrew. He criticized what he described as a lack of urgency by local authorities and said no arrests have been made.
“The attackers are still walking free,” he said. “We will not give up until justice is done.”
Cypriot authorities have not publicly commented on the investigation.