Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israeli authorities are investigating whether the attack that left an American woman dead and her friend injured was "nationalistic," a police spokesman said Monday, using a term for crimes in which a victim is targeted based on an Arab or Israeli background. American Kristine Luken died in the attack. Her body was found Sunday after Kay Susan Wilson, Luken's friend and co-worker at a Christian ministry, stumbled into a picnic area with her hands bound, bleeding from multiple stab wounds and asking for help. Wilson told authorities the two were hiking in a forest near Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem, when two men attacked them, tied them to a tree and stabbed them, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
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NEW: Police confirm they are focusing on whether the attack was "nationalistic"
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NEW: The term is used when victims are targeted based on their Arab or Israeli background
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Kristine Luken was hiking with a friend and colleague from a Christian ministry
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Luken's friend survived the attack and summoned help
Wilson told reporters from her hospital bed Sunday that one of the men was armed with a long serrated knife and that she believes they were @placeholder.