Two blasts went off near bus stops in Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring at least 18, in apparent terrorist attacks.
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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 neighborhood in the city's north. Police said one person died from the wounds and Israel's rescue service Magen David Adom said four people were seriously wounded in the blasts.
The apparent attacks came as Israeli-Palestinian tensions are high. Over the past several months a spate of deadly attacks against Israelis killed 19 people. There has been an uptick in recent weeks in Palestinian attacks, including overnight Tuesday.
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The violence also comes as former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding coalition talks after national elections and is likely to form a government in days.
Police said their initial findings showed that explosive devices were placed at the two sites. The twin blasts occurred amid the buzz of rush hour traffic and police closed part of a main highway leading out of the city, where the fist explosion went off. Video from shortly after the first blast showed debris strewn along the sidewalk as the wail of ambulances blared.
Video: The footage of the first explosion
"It was a crazy explosion. There is damage everywhere here, " Yosef Haim Gabay, a medic who was at the scene when the first blast occurred, told Israeli Army Radio. "I saw people with wounds bleeding all over the place."
While Palestinians have carried out stabbings, car rammings and shootings in recent years, bombing attacks have become very rare since the end of a Palestinian uprising nearly two decades ago. The Islamic terrorist group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, praised the perpetrators of the attacks, calling it a heroic operation, but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
"The occupation is reaping the price of its crimes and aggression against our people," Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanua said.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, an far-right 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 gave him impetus to take a tougher stance on Palestinian attackers.
"It's time to take a hard line against terrorists, it's time to make order," he tweeted.
According to first responders, the first blast resulted in at least two critical injuries following the blast, which took place near Sheaarei Yerushalayim street in the northern part of the city. One of the injured in that attack later succumbed to his wounds.
Witnesses say the explosive device was apparently hidden in an unattended back left at the bust stop. Television footage showed debris strewn around the blast scene, which was cordoned off by emergency services. Police did not confirm that the explosion was from a nearby bag and the investigation was still ongoing. Police said the second explosion took place on a bus that was empty in the nearby neighborhood of Ramot, with several suffering small wounds due to shrapnel.
Video: Reuters
The attack comes just hours after another incident involving terrorist groups. Overnight Tuesday, Palestinians affiliated with the Fatah renegade terrorist group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for snatching the body of an Israeli who died in a car crash near Jenin. The body was apparently being held in a nearby refugee camp.
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