Teen stabbed in Jerusalem gay pride parade dies

JERUSALEM -- A teenage girl seriously wounded after an anti-gay extremist stabbed her and several others in last week's attack on Jerusalem's gay pride parade died Sunday, a hospital official.

Shira Banki, 16, succumbed to her wounds, and her organs will be donated, Hadassah Medical Center spokeswoman Hadar Elboim said.

The girl was among six people wounded Thursday by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, Yishai Schlissel, who had carried out a similar attack on a gay pride parade in 2005. He had angrily spoken out against the parade after his release from prison three weeks earlier.

The parade was proceeding as planned, with party music, Israeli flags and rainbow-clad marchers wending their way through central Jerusalem, when the attacker lunged into the march, stabbing people with a long-bladed knife before being apprehended by police.

Jerusalem, known for its rich religious history and tradition, holds a modest parade annually in contrast to the large parade in nearby liberal Tel Aviv, which drew over 100,000 people this year.

A majority of Jerusalem's residents are observant Jews, Muslims or Christians, conservative communities whose members mostly frown on homosexuality. But violent attacks on gays are rare.

Previous parades in the holy city have drawn opposition and threats.