Second victim of Jerusalem terror attack still in serious condition

Shira Klein, 20, who was wounded in Wednesday’s apparent terror attack in Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood, remains in serious but stable condition.

The attack claimed the life of 25-year-old Yohai Sherki, the son of prominent rabbi Ouri Sherki who is well known in the city’s francophone community. Sherki died of his injuries on Thursday morning and was buried later that day.

Klein is hospitalized in the intensive care unit of the capital’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, where she is kept sedated and connected to machines that assist her breathing, according to Hebrew media reports.

A Palestinian driver, Khaled Koutineh from East Jerusalem, deliberately rammed his car into a Jerusalem bus stop in what Israel Police chief Yohanan Danino called on Saturday a “horrible attack.”

“Today we can say that it is a horrible attack,” Danino said in a statement after an investigation into Wednesday’s incident. He ruled out initial suggestions that the attack had been an accident.

Friends and family of Shalom Yohai Sherki carry his body during his funeral in Jerusalem on April 16, 2015. (photo credit: Flash90)

Koutineh was also injured in the attack and is now being held by police.

Koutineh’s family told Palestinian media on Thursday night that he could not have had malicious intent, the Ynet news site reported. Koutineh’s wife said the 37-year-old had left his house at around 10 p.m. Wednesday to drive his parents to their home in Jerusalem’s Old City.

According to Koutineh’s wife, hitting the two was an accident caused by the bad weather at the time.

Jerusalem has seen a spate of deadly attacks by Palestinians since last October.

In March, five Israelis were injured when a Palestinian drove into a group of pedestrians before getting out of the car to try to stab passersby.

An Israeli border guard was killed and several people were injured in November when a Palestinian drove his vehicle into people waiting at a stop on the city’s light rail system.

And in a similar attack, two people — including a three-month-old Israeli-American baby — were killed in October.

AFP contributed to this report.