Terrorists know exactly how to stab to inflict maximum damage, said Dr. Ofer Merin, head of the Trauma Unit at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, at a Magen David Adom conference on Monday.

The stabbing attacks, which in recent months have occurred almost daily throughout Israel, are not random or based on whatever body part of a victim is available, but carefully calculated from a medical perspective, according to Merin. “The attackers know where they need to hit; it’s not something random,” he said.

The trauma doctor, who works at one of Jerusalem’s two main hospitals, has treated many of the victims of the latest terror wave. He has become a familiar media figure, as he is often called upon to comment on the statuses of his patients.

Merin told the conference of a terror victim he treated whose wounds were nearly scientific. “Three weeks ago, we received a wounded [man] who is still hospitalized with four [stab] wounds: one to the lungs, one to the right atrium, one to the right ventricle, and one to the neck,” Merin said.

The doctor continued, “It’s as if someone read the manual, and a wounded person comes in with two wounds to the heart. You learn that [the attackers] know where to strike.”

Merin mentioned a different case in which the terrorist had stuck a knife directly into his victim’s spinal cord. The knife had to be surgically removed in an operating room to prevent bleeding.

Eli Bin, the Director General of Israel’s emergency medical service, Magen David Adom, also spoke at the conference of the need to keep improving emergency medical care. He said that equipment for first responders is scheduled to be upgraded soon and that ambulances will be outfitted with automated respirators and defibrillators.

Bin said that there have already been improvements in the field, noting that response time for emergency dispatchers has been shortened to four seconds.