May his memory be a blessing. Two blasts went off near bus stops in Jerusalem at the height of morning rush hour on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring at least 18, in what police said were suspected attacks by Palestinians.
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 about half an hour later in Ramot, a settlement in the city’s north. Police said one person died from their wounds and at least three were seriously wounded in the blasts.
Israeli media said the person killed was 16 years old.
The suspected attacks came as Israeli-Palestinian tensions are high, following months of Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank prompted by a spate of deadly attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people. There has been an uptick in recent weeks in Palestinian attacks.
The violence also comes as former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding coalition talks after national elections and is likely to return to power as head of what’s expected to be Israel’s most right-wing government ever.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extremist 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 meant Israel needed to take a tougher stance on Palestinian violence.
“We must exact a price from terror,” he said at the scene of the first explosion. “We must return to be in control of Israel, to restore deterrence against terror.”
Police, who were searching for the suspected attackers, said their initial findings showed that shrapnel-laden explosive devices were placed at the two sites. The twin blasts occurred amid the buzz of rush hour traffic and police briefly 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. A bus in Ramot was pocked with what looked like shrapnel marks.
“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.”Naomi Pilichowski, an 18-year-old Israeli American, was injured in the bombing at the entrance to Jerusalem on Wednesday morning.
Pilichowski is the daughter of Uri Pilichowski, a Jerusalem Post columnist and a known American-Israeli educator who works at Nefesh B’Nefesh. The family moved to Israel eight years ago.
Naomi was evacuated to Hadassah-University Medical Center at Jerusalem's Ein Kerem where she was being treated for light injuries. She was at the bus stop on her way to Beit Shemesh where she is currently doing her national service. The family lives in Mitzpe Yericho and Naomi’s mother Aliza is the mayor of the small town.
Uri said that the whole situation was extremely scary and sad.
“You feel terrified, you are also sad because it’s your daughter and there is anger why this stuff happens,” he said.
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