Israeli security personnel patrol the area outside Damascus Gate following a stabbing attack by the gate in Jerusalem’s Old City, May 31, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Ammar Awad.

An Israeli man critically wounded in a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem two weeks ago is returning home after a remarkably quick recovery.

Gabriel Lavie, 50, was going home from praying at the Western Wall when an 18-year-old Palestinian terrorist stabbed him in the back near Damascus Gate.

The Israeli news site Walla reported that, speaking at a press conference at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Lavie recounted, “There wasn’t much I could do, I only had tefillin in my hand.”

After being stabbed several times, he recalled, “I fell to my knees. Apparently, the terrorist thought that, as far as he was concerned, his mission was completed.”

The terrorist then left the scene and stabbed 16-year-old Yisrael Nachumberg, who was moderately wounded. Police pursued and shot the assailant dead.

Nachumberg recalled that he was riding a bicycle with his brother when “suddenly someone jumped on me. I was scared to death.”

He described the stabbing as feeling as if he had been punched in the back. He counted himself lucky, as “the knife hit an inch from my spine.”

Nachumberg called the near-miss “a miracle.”

At the press conference, Doctor Alon Schwartz described Lavie’s condition after the attack as “very severe,” with stab wounds in “all parts of the body.”

“We are excited to be sitting here on the day he’s released to go home and return to normal life. It’s not to be taken for granted. He was stabbed many times,” Schwartz said, crediting Lavie’s survival to quick action by paramedics.