One dead, 14 hurt in Jerusalem blasts
JERUSALEM: At least one person was killed and 14 wounded in two separate explosions targeting bus stops in Jerusalem yesterday, security and medical officials said, with Israel’s public security minister calling them “attacks”.
An explosion at a bus stop at the western exit from Jerusalem killed a man and wounded 11. A separate blast at another stop a short distance away damaged a bus and wounded three people, the hospitals treating the casualties said.
The twin blasts struck half an hour apart, police said, noting that explosives experts were at the scene with police and forensic scientists “collecting evidence and scanning the area for suspects.”
An AFP photographer at the scene said the blast had ripped a hole through a metal fence behind the bus stop, with an electric scooter and a hat lying on the ground.
The photographer said the second blast had torn through the side of a bus.
Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital said a man had died of his wounds from the first explosion. Doctors were treating another person in critical condition, two seriously wounded and two lightly wounded.
Hadassah medical centre said it was treating six people injured in the first blast and another three people lightly wounded in the second.
Public Security Minister Omer BarLev said he spoke with the police chief and was “briefed on the two attacks in Jerusalem.”
Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, praised the bombings.
Violence has flared this year, particularly in the West Bank, where the Israeli army has launched near-daily raids since a series of attacks on Israeli targets earlier this year.
Following yesterday’s attacks, Israel closed two checkpoints near Jenin.