According to Israeli police, two alleged bombings at bus stops in Jerusalem resulted in the death of a teenage kid and the injuries of 14 additional people.
People were leaving for work when the explosions occurred at two busy intersections on the outskirts of the city.
Twelve individuals were hurt by the first explosion, including the youngster who perished. The second one injured three additional people.
At one point, Israel’s interior minister remarked that this was “an attack we haven’t seen in a long time.”
Deadly shootings and stabbings against Israelis have increased this year, leading to a wave of Israeli military raids in Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank.
But the use of explosives in Jerusalem would be the most significant attack of its kind in years.
It’s recorded that the first explosion happened in Givat Shaul, close to the main entrance to the city, at around 07:05 (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
30 minutes later, there was a second blast in Ramot Junction, another entrance to the city.
Videos from one scene showed people running and debris scattered across the street.
Israeli police said an initial investigation suggested that both blasts were caused by explosive devices placed at the scenes and that officers suspected this was a “combined terror attack”.
The Haaretz newspaper cited a police source as saying that both devices contained nails and were likely to have been detonated remotely.
“It’s a very difficult morning,” Israeli Internal Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev told reporters.
“There’s a high probability that there’s a connection between the attacks. These are not copycats. I believe that we’ll put our hand on all involved.”
Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai called on the public to contact the emergency services if they saw anything out of the ordinary.
Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid was convening a special meeting with the country’s security chiefs, Israeli media reported.
It comes as Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party continue negotiations to form a new coalition government with allied far-right and religious parties. They won a majority in parliament in this month’s general election.
“Even if it’s in the West Bank, lay siege to them and go from house to house in search of guns and restore our deterrence power,” he said.
The US embassy in Israel tweeted that it condemned “in strongest possible terms today’s terrorist attacks on public locations in Jerusalem and offers sincere condolences to the victims and their loved ones”.
“Terrorism is a dead-end that accomplishes absolutely nothing,” it added.
The UK ambassador to Israel said he was “shocked by the terrorist attacks”.
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