American 15th Israeli Bus Victim

A Philadelphia woman, seriously injured earlier this month when a Palestinian grabbed the wheel of an Israel bus and sent it careening into a ravine, died Tuesday in an Israeli hospital, the first U.S. fatality in the incident, a hospital spokesman said.

Rita Levine, 39, an attorney, was the 15th passenger to die in the July 6 incident in which 26 other people were injured, including six Americans. Among the fatalities were two Canadians.

A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip Nusseirat refugee camp caused the crash by grabbing the steering wheel and sending the bus into a ravine on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.

The incident, the deadliest in Israel since 1978, outraged Israelis and triggered revenge attacks against Arabs.

Levine died at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital. Her body will be flown to Philadelphia today, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Five other passengers remain hospitalized, including an American, Arieh Yardeni, 57, whose condition remains serious but is improving, the spokeswoman said.

Levine was on a six-month leave of absence from her job as a public defender to learn Hebrew and to take a law course in Israel, her sister, Joan, told reporters.

Abed Hadi Ghneim, 25, who also was injured in the crash, reportedly planned and carried out the attack to avenge the shooting of a friend and beatings of him and his family by Israeli soldiers.