Palestinian admits to car attack in Jerusalem

A Palestinian who drove his car into two Israeli pedestrians last week, killing one of them, has admitted that it was a deliberate act, a police statement said on Tuesday.

"I sought to kill Jews to revenge my miserable life," Khaled Kotina, a 37-year-old resident of the Palestinian suburb of Anata north in Jerusalem, told his interrogators.

Kotina said that a few hours before the incident, he drove his parents from Anata to east Jerusalem, but they were held up at an Israeli checkpoint for a long time and that enraged him and prompted him to make up his mind for the act.

The information was released on Tuesday after the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court lifted a gag order on the investigation, Xinhua news agency reported.

Late on April 15 night, Kotina rammed his car into two Israelis who were waiting at a bus stop. He killed Shalom Cherki, a 25-year-old resident of Jerusalem and severely injured Shira Klein, a woman in her early twenties.

Kotina initially denied his act was intentional, claiming the accident occurred due to bad weather.

The incident came amid a surge of attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem, as tension is rising between Israelis and Palestinians over access to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, or the Temple Mount, a holy place for both Muslims and Jews.

The last attack prior to Kotin's act also took place in April, when a Palestinian slammed his vehicle into commuters at a tram stop in east Jerusalem, injuring at least seven people. He was shot dead by police.