Twin blasts in Jerusalem kill one in suspected Palestinian assault By Reuters

By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Two bombs exploded at bus stops on Jerusalem’s outskirts on Wednesday, killing a 16-year-old boy and wounding not less than 14 different individuals, in what seemed to be an assault by Palestinian militants, Israeli authorities mentioned.

Police blamed the preliminary blast, which occurred throughout rush hour, on an explosive machine planted at a bus station close to town exit. The second – about half-hour later – hit a bus cease within the neighborhood of an city settlement within the east of town.

“There has not been such a coordinated assault in Jerusalem for a few years,” police spokesman Eli Levi informed Israeli Military Radio.

Military Radio mentioned the explosive gadgets have been hidden in baggage and have been full of nails to maximise the impression. Kan Radio mentioned they seem to have been detonated from afar by cell phone.

Safety digicam footage aired by N12 information confirmed the second of the primary explosion with a sudden cloud of smoke billowing from the bus cease. Tv confirmed particles strewn across the web site, which was cordoned off by emergency companies.

Israel’s ambulance service mentioned 12 individuals had been taken to hospital from the primary blast and three individuals have been wounded within the second explosion. One of many wounded, a 16-year-old, died in hospital, the Shaare Zedek Medical Middle mentioned.

The United Nations, the European Union and the USA condemned the assaults.

“Terrorism is a dead-end that accomplishes completely nothing,” the U.S. Embassy mentioned on Twitter.

TENSION

The explosions, which carry echoes of the bus bombings that have been an indicator of the Palestinian revolt of 2000-2005, comply with months of pressure within the occupied West Financial institution after the Israeli navy launched a crackdown within the wake of a sequence of lethal Palestinian assaults in Israel.

The co-ordinated explosions seemed to be a step-up from the string of principally Palestinian lone-wolf stabbing, taking pictures and automobile ramming assaults this 12 months.

In Gaza, a spokesman for the Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the Jerusalem explosions however stopped in need of claiming duty.

Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua linked the blasts to “the crimes performed by the (Israeli) occupation and the settlers”.

The explosions got here as former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu negotiates with allies to type a brand new right-wing authorities together with members of non secular and far-right events.

One in all his allies, ultra-nationalist lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir who heads the Jewish Energy get together, visited the scene of the primary bombing the place he demanded robust motion towards militants.

“Even when it is within the West Financial institution, lay siege to them and go from home to deal with in quest of weapons and restore our deterrence energy,” mentioned Ben-Gvir, who hopes to be appointed police minister within the new authorities.

In a separate incident, Palestinian gunmen late on Tuesday kidnapped the physique of an Israeli high-school scholar who had died in a Palestinian hospital within the West Financial institution metropolis of Jenin after being injured in a automobile crash close by, {the teenager}’s uncle informed Kan Radio.

A diplomat supply informed Reuters that United Nations was mediating on the discharge of the physique and Israeli navy mentioned it anticipated that that might occur quickly.

It was unclear why the gunmen had taken the physique and there was no instant indication of any connection between this incident and the bombings.