This Israeli man who lost his leg in a Kalashnikov terrorist attack that killed his mum and three of his siblings when he was just nine years old has become a professional basketball player after “working through the bad experiences with sports”.

Para-athlete Asael Shabo, 29, lost his right leg in a terrorist attack in his home in the Israeli West Bank settlement of Itamar on 20th June 2002, when an attacker killed three of his brothers, Neria, 15, Tzvika, 12, and Avishi, 5, and shot his mother Rachel, 39, dead after she rushed over to rescue her kids.

The “Itamar Attack” took place when two Palestinian terrorists broke into a house in the Israeli settlement of Itamar in the West Bank, killing most of the Shabo family, murdering the mother and three of her sons, while injuring two other children.

The two gunmen were killed and eight Israelis were wounded when Israeli soldiers stormed the house, which caught fire. Yosef Toito, 31, the commander of the rescue forces, was also killed. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.

Asael was shot several times too during the attack on his family but he managed to play dead and survived along with Abia, 13. The attacker holed up in the family home for two hours before the Israeli military could shoot him dead and rescue Asael.

Despite losing four litres of blood and his right leg, as well as much of his family and the family home, which burned down, Asael has not lost his will to fight and live.

And despite being told he would not be able to become an athlete, Asael has now achieved his dream of becoming a pro basketball player.

Asael reportedly found his path back to life with the help of his remaining family and the Israeli aid organisation Keren Hayesod.

He now plays for the RheinStars Koeln, a wheelchair basketball club in Cologne, Germany, which is known as the Cologne 99ers after it was founded in 1999.

Asael told German media: “After the attack, I was in hospitals for almost two years and suffered from nightmares.”

He added: “In the end, I tried to work through the bad experiences with sports. I started swimming, later switched to basketball.”