ISRAEL: In two bombings that targeted Jerusalem commuters during rush hour, a teenage boy died and 22 others were hurt. These attacks, which are reminiscent of the bloodshed of the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, were targeted at commuters.
On the western edges of the split city, not far from a bus stop crowded with passengers, a first explosion happened just after 7 a.m. (5 a.m. GMT) on Wednesday.
Five more persons were hurt by a second blast that occurred 30 minutes later near a busy intersection in the Ramot settlement, north of Jerusalem. Aryeh Schupak, 16, who held dual citizenship in Israel and Canada, died from his injuries in the hospital.
Israel’s rescue agency, reported that four people were in critical condition.
There is devastation everywhere, according to Yosef Haim Gabay, a medic who was at the bus stop, who also reported that some of the injured were bleeding profusely. In the entire city, police and ambulance sirens could be heard.
“There has not been such a coordinated attack in Jerusalem for many years,” police spokesperson Eli Levi said.
While Israeli police scoured the city for other explosives, portions of the key highway linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv were briefly stopped. Two crossings into the occupied West Bank were also shuttered.
Initial investigations, according to the police, indicate that the explosions were triggered by explosive devices that were augmented with nails for maximum destruction, left in bags concealed in vegetation behind walls at the sites, and remotely detonated by cell phone.
The bombing was praised as a “heroic action,” but Hamas, the Islamist militant organisation in charge of the blockaded Gaza Strip, made no claims of credit.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has already claimed the lives of more than 130 Palestinians and 29 Israelis in fighting in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since the beginning of 2022.
The blasts on Wednesday are a step up from this terrible year. A three-day Israeli aerial onslaught on the Gaza Strip resulted in the deaths of another 49 Palestinians, including 17 children.
Prior to briefing the opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s outgoing prime minister, Yair Lapid, said he will conduct a security assessment with government, military, and intelligence officials later on Wednesday.
Following elections earlier this month, Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and religious parties gained a clear majority, and he is poised to take office again in a few weeks.
He is now engaged in coalition negotiations that are anticipated to result in the election of Israel’s most extreme administration ever.
The death sentence should be applied to Palestinian terrorists, according to far-right Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has also called for the expulsion of “disloyal” Arab Israeli residents.
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