One Dead and 22 Injured in Jerusalem Explosions

A teenager has been killed and 22 people injured in two explosions targeting Jerusalem commuters during rush hour.

The blasts occurred in two busy parts of the city’s outskirts as people headed to work.

The first explosion, shortly after 7am local time, occurred near a civilian-filled bus stop on the western edges of the city, followed a second half an hour later near a busy intersection in the Ramot settlement north of Jerusalem.

The one fatality was named as Aryeh Shechopek, a 16-year-old who was on his way to a local yeshiva.  The dual Israeli-Canadian citizen resided in the Har Nof area of the city.

“There has not been such a coordinated attack in Jerusalem for many years,” said police spokesperson Eli Levi.

No group has claimed responsibility for the explosions as yet, but Hamas called the attacks a “heroic operation”.

The attacks are the latest escalation of violence in the region, with more than 130 Palestinians having been killed during fighting in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem this year. A total of 29 Israelis have also been killed in a range of attacks claimed to have been carried out by Palestinians.

Overnight Ahmed Shehadeh, a 16-year-old Palestinian boy, was also shot and killed during fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants in the West Bank city of Nablus.