Jerusalem Explosions Kill One Injures 15
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Suspected Palestinian militants set off explosions at two bus stops in Jerusalem, leaving one person dead and at least 15 people injured, authorities said early Wednesday.
Hospitals were receiving the wounded, including the person who passed away, according to hospital sources.
Wednesday’s twin blasts came hours after Palestinian authorities blamed Israeli forces for killing a Palestinian 16-year-old in the West Bank city of Nablus.
These were the most severe bus bombings in several years. Israeli security officials said one explosive device was detonated in a bus station at the entrance of Jerusalem.
Shortly after, a second explosive device was detonated near another bus station in northern Jerusalem, according to police.
The twin blasts occurred amid the buzz of rush hour traffic, and police closed part of the main highway leading out of the city, where the first explosion went off.
NEW INTIFADA?
Footage after the first blast showed debris strewn along the sidewalk as the wail of ambulances blared.
Commentators said the bombings had “the characteristics” of attacks during the second “Intifada,” or Palestinian uprising, two decades ago.
The suspected terror attack followed a night of tensions in the northern West Bank. At least one Palestinian person was killed and several others wounded in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the city of Nablus, officials said.
In the city of Jenin, Palestinian gunmen reportedly kidnapped the body of an Israeli-Druze man who died at a hospital in the town after being critically wounded in a car crash.
The Palestinian shooters demanded that Israel return the bodies of Palestinians who were killed during attacks, and Israel is holding.
During the night, the Palestinian Authority security forces tried to retrieve the body from the gunmen but failed in doing so, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
RISING TENSIONS
The attacks came as Israeli-Palestinian tensions were high, following months of Israeli raids in the Israeli-controlled West Bank after violence against Israelis killed 19 people.
Tension also increased due to repeated stand-offs between Muslims and Jewish worshippers at the Al Aqsa mosque complex in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
A spokesman for the Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the apparent bombings but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said the bombings “resulted from the crimes conducted by the occupation and the settlers.”
The violence happened while former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks after the national elections.
He is likely to form Israel’s most right-wing government so far.
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