A teenager was killed and 22 injured in two explosions that targeted commuters during rush hour in Jerusalem. The first blast occurred near a civilian-filled bus stop on the western outskirts of the fragmented city shortly after 7 a.m. local time on Wednesday. A second explosion occurred 30 minutes after him, near a busy intersection in the village of Lamot, north of Jerusalem, injuring five more people. The teenager who died in the hospital from his injuries was identified as Israeli-Canadian Aryeh Schupak, 16. Four people were in critical condition, according to Israeli rescue team Magen David Adom. Yosef Haim Gabay, a medic who was at the bus stop, told Army Radio there was “damage everywhere” and that some of the wounded were bleeding heavily. Ambulance and police sirens blared across the city.
A police spokesperson, Eli Levi, said: “There has not been such a coordinated attack in Jerusalem for many years.” Parts of the main motorway connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv were temporarily closed Police said initial findings showed that the blasts were caused by explosive devices supplemented with nails for maximum damage, left in bags hidden in bushes behind walls at the sites, and detonated remotely by mobile phone. Hamas, the Islamist militant group in control of the blockaded Gaza Strip, praised the attacks as a “heroic operation” but did not claim responsibility. Wednesday’s explosions mark an escalation in an already deadly year for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: more than 130 Palestinians have been killed in fighting in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since the beginning of 2022, and 29 Israelis have been killed in stabbing, car-ramming, and gun attacks. Three days of Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in August killed another 49 Palestinians, including 17 children.
The attacks on Israeli buses that have been a hallmark of his 2005 Intifada since 2000, most of them carried out by suicide bombers, have since become rare. In 2016, 21 people were injured after a Hamas operative detonated his device on a bus in Jerusalem, and in 2011 a backpack bomb killed two of them outside the International Convention Center in Jerusalem. killed A senior security official told the Israeli daily Haaretz “The nature of the twin attacks suggests critical infrastructure behind them, including intelligence, explosives procurement, and preparation.” Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said later on Wednesday that a security assessment would be conducted alongside public security, military, and intelligence officials.
Elections that month won a decisive majority. He is negotiating a coalition that is expected to lead to the formation of the most radical Israeli government ever. On Wednesday, Ben Gubir said the bombings meant Israel had to take a tougher stance against Palestinian militants, including a return to targeted assassinations. “Even if it’s in the West Bank, besiege them, go from house to house looking for weapons and restore deterrence,” he said at the scene of the first explosion. must return to rule Israel.” Israel has occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip since her 1967. The country’s steady shift to the right, combined with the helpless Palestinian authorities and the emergence of a new generation of Palestinian fighters, makes a return to peace talks highly unlikely.2.
