Jerusalem: Two blasts went off near bus stops in Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring at least 18, in what police said were suspected attacks by Palestinians.
The first explosion occurred near a bus stop on the edge of the city, where commuters usually crowd waiting for buses. The second went off in Ramot, a settlement in the city’s north. Police said one person died from their wounds and Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom said four people were seriously wounded in the blasts.
The apparent attacks come as Israeli-Palestinian tensions are high, following months of Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank prompted by a spate of deadly attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people. There has been a rise in recent weeks in Palestinian attacks.
The violence also comes as former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding coalition talks after national elections and is likely to form what’s expected to be Israel’s most right-wing government to date.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extremist lawmaker who has called for the death penalty for Palestinian attackers and who is set to become the minister in charge of police under Netanyahu, said the attack meant Israel needed to take a tougher stance on Palestinian attackers.
“We must exact a price from terror,” he said at the scene of the first explosion. “We must return to be in control of Israel, to restore deterrence against terror.”
Read the article in The Sydney Morning Herald (AP).