Jerusalem bomb blasts kill 1, wound at least 18
JERUSALEM — Two blasts in Jerusalem killed a teenager and injured at least 18 other people during the morning rush hour Wednesday, Israeli police said, in what were the first bomb attacks on Israeli civilians in Israel in more than six years.
Police said that the first explosion occurred at a bus stop in northwest Jerusalem at 7:05 a.m., killing one and injuring several others. Half an hour later, another blast at a bus stop about 2 miles to the north wounded at least three more people. Both blasts were caused by explosive devices planted at the scene, police said.
The person killed was a young yeshiva student, Aryeh Schupak, 15, a resident of Jerusalem who held dual Israeli and Canadian citizenship, according to officials. A doctor at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the city said the youth’s death was confirmed in the hospital after resuscitation efforts failed.
The explosions came as Benjamin Netanyahu, the former and likely future prime minister, was attempting to form what would be Israel’s most right-wing government in history. They prompted calls by far-right leaders, who have pressed for tougher action against terrorism, for the announcement of a new administration as soon as possible.
Israel and the occupied West Bank have been experiencing their deadliest wave of violence since 2015. Overnight, a Palestinian teenager was killed during a firefight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank.
Four people were seriously wounded in the explosions Wednesday, according to an ambulance service, Magen David Adom. The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Thomas R. Nides, later announced that two of the injured were American citizens.
The blasts were the first on the Israeli transport system since April 2016. Officials and analysts described the blasts as a departure from the less sophisticated, “lone wolf” attacks of recent years.
The Israeli police commissioner, Kobi Shabtai, said the two explosions constituted a “complex attack” since they may have been perpetrated by two different people.
Militant groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas described the attacks as a response to Israeli raids earlier this year at the Al-aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem but stopped short of claiming responsibility.