Twin Blasts Shake Jerusalem, Killing 1 and Wounding Several

By ALON BERNSTEIN and TIA GOLDENBERG, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Two blasts went off close to bus stops in Jerusalem on the top of morning rush hour on Wednesday, killing one individual and injuring not less than 18, in what police mentioned had been suspected assaults by Palestinians.

The first explosion occurred close to a bus cease on the sting of the town, the place commuters often crowd ready for buses. The second went off in Ramot, a settlement within the metropolis’s north. Police mentioned one individual died from their wounds and not less than three had been severely wounded within the blasts.

The obvious assaults got here as Israeli-Palestinian tensions are excessive, following months of Israeli raids within the occupied West Bank prompted by a spate of lethal assaults towards Israelis that killed 19 folks. There has been an uptick in current weeks in Palestinian assaults.

The violence additionally comes as former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding coalition talks after nationwide elections and is prone to return to energy as head of what is anticipated to be Israel’s most right-wing authorities ever.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extremist lawmaker who has referred to as for the demise penalty for Palestinian attackers and who is ready to change into the minister accountable for police beneath Netanyahu, mentioned the assault meant Israel wanted to take a harder stance on Palestinian violence.

“We must exact a price from terror,” he mentioned on the scene of the primary explosion. “We must return to be in control of Israel, to restore deterrence against terror.”

Police, who had been trying to find the suspected attackers, mentioned their preliminary findings confirmed that shrapnel-laden explosive gadgets had been positioned on the two websites. The twin blasts occurred amid the excitement of rush hour visitors and police briefly closed a part of a foremost freeway main out of the town, the place the fist explosion went off. Video from shortly after the primary blast confirmed particles strewn alongside the sidewalk because the wail of ambulances blared. A bus in Ramot was pocked with what appeared like shrapnel marks.

“It was a crazy explosion. There is damage everywhere here,” Yosef Haim Gabay, a medic who was on the scene when the primary blast occurred, advised Israeli Army Radio. “I saw people with wounds bleeding all over the place.”

While Palestinians have carried out stabbings, automobile rammings and shootings lately, bombing assaults have change into very uncommon because the finish of a Palestinian rebellion practically 20 years in the past.

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem condemned the violence, as did EU Ambassador to Israel Dimiter Tzantchev.

The Islamic militant Hamas, which guidelines the Gaza Strip and as soon as carried out suicide bombings towards Israelis, praised the perpetrators of the assaults, calling it a heroic operation, however stopped wanting claiming accountability.

“The occupation is reaping the price of its crimes and aggression against our people,” Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanua said.

Israel said that in response to the blasts, it was closing two West Bank crossings to Palestinians near the West Bank city of Jenin, a militant stronghold.

More than 130 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006. The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the military incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.

At least seven more Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks in recent weeks.

The Israeli military said Wednesday that Palestinian gunmen opened fire on forces escorting worshippers to a flashpoint shrine in the West Bank city of Nablus overnight. The troops fired back and the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 16-year-old was killed in the incident.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and Gaza. The Palestinians seek the territories for their hoped-for independent state.

Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Isaac Scharf contributed to this report.

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