Police: Rising suspicion that deadly Jerusalem car incident was terror attack

Shalom Yohai Cherki, 25, from Jerusalem was killed in the incident and a 20-year-old Jewish woman who was seriously injured remains hospitalized.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, JPOST.COM STAFF
Scene of suspected vehicular terror attack in Jerusalem
Police said Thursday that the suspicion of terror as the motive in a deadly incident in Jerusalem in which one Israeli pedestrian was killed and another was seriously injured by a Palestinian driver Wednesday night is getting stronger.
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) is also taking part in the investigation into Wednesday night's deadly incident in which the driver, a Palestinian east Jerusalem resident, struck two Israelis waiting for a bus in the capital's French Hill area.
The two civilians hit by the car were seriously injured, and one man died of his injuries in hospital on Thursday morning. The Shin Bet said the driver, 37, is married without children, and is a resident of the new Anata neighborhood. He has no record of prior arrests.
"He will be taken for Shin Bet questioning after hospital checks are complete at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital," the agency said.
Initial findings into the investigation of the incident point toward it being carried out purposefully for nationalistic reasons, however the probe is still ongoing, police stressed.
The man who died from his injuries was 25-year-old Shalom Yohai Cherki of Jerusalem. He sustained head injuries in the incident and was sedated by MDA paramedics and placed on a ventilator. The woman, approximately 20-years-old, who was injured also sustained head injuries and was sedated and placed on a ventilator.  She remained in serious condition at Hadassah Ein Kerem as of Thursday afternoon.
Cherki was scheduled to be laid to rest at Har Hamenuchot Cemetery in Givat Shaul in the capital at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Shalom Yohai Cherki, victim of Jerusalem car incident
Shalom Yohai Cherki, victim of Jerusalem car incident
Jerusalem has seen a string of car ramming attacks over the past year. Last month, five people were injured in a car ramming terror attack in the capital.  In November, an Arab man from Shuafat drove his car into 13 people at the Shimon Hatzadik light-rail stop, killing Border Police officer Jidan Assad.
In that incident, after crashing his vehicle, the suspect exited the car wielding a crow bar to attack more pedestrians before being shot dead.
 
In another incident last October, a 22-year-old female Ecuadorian national died in Jerusalem in a terrorist attack that also took the life of three-month- old Chaya Zissel Braun and injured seven others.