Ayala Shapira, the 11-year-old girl who was badly burned in a firebomb attack in Samaria last Thursday, is awake. She has recognized her relatives and spoken to them.

Ayala continues to be hospitalized at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer in serious but stable condition; the public is asked to continue praying for the full recovery of Ayelet bat Rut.

The attack occurred on a service road between Ma’ale Shomron and the new community of El-Matan. Ma’ale Shomron is located off Road 55, which stretches between Kfar Saba and Shechem (Nablus).

Ayala’s father, Avner, was lightly wounded in the attack.

Ayala’s mother, Ruth, excitedly told reporters Thursday – “on the way here I got a telephone call and I was told that Ayala has woken up. Avner is standing next to her; he is talking to her, she recognizes him and recognizes my voice on the telephone, and is responding to simple instructions.”

“We are simply seeing, this week, the power of prayer,” she added. “We feel that we are being carried up on a miracle, because quite simply, since the terror attack, everything has gone as smoothly as it could have with Ayala. It is simply unbelievable. We ask everyone to continue to pray for her. She is still not out of danger – we still have a long way to go.”

The two Arab terrorists who carried out the attack were arrested the same night of the attack by the elite IDF unit Duvdevan.

Avner Shapira criticized the security system over its approach toward Arab terrorism.

“All of this treating the incident as if it were a criminal event – the idea of treating some young criminals who throw bombs at cars as criminals is a fundamentally flawed concept,” Shapira told IDF Radio.

He voiced a similar sentiment when Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) visited him at his bedside, visibly embarrassing Ya’alon.