An explosion occurred this morning near a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem, police said, and one of the Israelis involved died. This was stated by the Shaarey Tzedek hospital. Another injured person is in “critical” condition, the hospital added. A second explosion was also reported in the Ramot neighborhood north of the city, and overall 19 people were injured in the two attacks that took place today in Jerusalem, Magen David Adom, the local equivalent of the Red Cross, said. Among the wounded are several children.
The cause of the explosions was not immediately disclosed, although Israeli media treated the incident as an attack by Palestinians. The police are investigating. The first explosion occurred at a bus stop along a highway leading out of the city, usually crowded with commuters.
Yosef Haim Gabay, a medic who was at the scene, told Army Radio that “there is damage everywhere here” and that some of the wounded were bleeding. Jerusalem hospitals said they received 12 people injured in the crash, including two critically and two seriously. Although the cause is still under investigation, the incident came at a time of heightened Israeli-Palestinian tension following months of Israeli incursions into the occupied West Bank, sparked by a series of deadly attacks on Israelis that killed 19 people.
More than 130 Palestinians, however, have been killed in clashes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006. The Israeli military says most of the Palestinians killed were militants. But youths throwing stones to protest the raids and others not involved in the clashes were also killed. At least five other people have since been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis in recent weeks.