JERUSALEM, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Two bombs exploded at bus stops in rural Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing a 16-year-old boy and injuring 14 others, as attack by Palestinian forces, Israeli authorities said. .
Police blamed the first blast, in the early hours of the morning, on an improvised explosive device at a bus station near the city’s exit. The second – about 30 minutes later – hit a bus stop near a village east of the city.
“There hasn’t been an attack like this in Jerusalem for many years,” police spokesman Eli Levi told Israel Defense Forces Radio.
The devices were hidden in bags, packed with nails and appeared to have been blown up by a mobile phone, Israeli broadcaster Kan Radio reported.
Security camera footage showed the moment of the first explosion and a cloud of smoke billowing from the bus stop. Television showed a wreckage near the scene, which had been shut down by emergency services.
Ambulance services said 12 people were taken to hospital from the first shooting, and three were wounded in the second. A 16-year-old Canadian-Israeli man died in hospital.
The United Nations, the European Union and the United States condemned the attacks.
“Terrorism has no end in sight,” the US Embassy said on Twitter.
The Canadian embassy confirmed the teenager who died was a Canadian citizen and called the bombing a “sinister terrorist attack”.
[1/6] A damaged bus is seen after an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem November 23, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Benjamin Netanyahu, who is now in talks with leaders from the religious and right-wing parties to form a new government after the elections, said he would do everything to save the security.
“We are still fighting the terror that has raised its head again,” the former prime minister said during a visit to the hospital where the wounded were being treated.
In Gaza, a spokesman for the Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the Jerusalem explosions but stopped short of claiming responsibility. Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua linked the shootings to “crimes committed by (Israel) and the settlers”.
The explosions, related to bus bombings, were a sign of the 2000-05 Palestinian uprising, which followed months of escalating unrest in the occupied West Bank. Israel after the attack by the Israeli military in the attack after the attack of the deadly Palestinian attacks. in Israel.
The planned explosions are an increase from a string of mostly Palestinian lone wolf shootings and car attacks this year.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of Netanyahu’s coalition partners, called for action, saying security forces should go “to that house to find weapons and restore our immunity.”
Separately, Palestinian militants late Sunday took the body of an Israeli high school student from a Palestinian hospital in the western city of Jenin after a nearby car crash, the parent said. cake of youth to Kan Radio.
The youth’s father and several Israeli officials said the kidnappers took life support from him before taking him away.
A source told Reuters the United Nations was mediating the release of the body and the Israeli military said it hoped it would happen soon.
The reasons for the body’s arrest remain unclear.
Maayan Lubell and Emily Rose talk in Jerusalem; Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Ali Sawafta in Ramallah Writing by James Mackenzie and Maayan Lubell; Edited by Kim Coghill, Robert Birsel, Gareth Jones and Mark Heinrich
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