Explosion goes off near Jerusalem bus stop, several injured

JERUSALEM (AP) — An explosion went off Wednesday near a bus stop on the edge of Jerusalem in what police said was a suspected Palestinian attack, and hospitals reported that at least 12 people were injured, two of them critically.

The explosion went off near a bus stop along a highway leading out of the city that is usually packed with commuters. Yosef Haim Gabay, a medic who was at the scene when the blast occurred, told Army Radio that “there is damage everywhere here” and that some of the wounded were bleeding heavily.

Jerusalem hospitals said they received 12 people wounded in the incident, among them two critically and two seriously.

While the cause was still being determined, the incident 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.

More than 130 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006. The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.

At least five more people have been killed in Palestinian attack against Israelis in recent weeks.

There were reports of a second blast in the neighborhood of Ramot north of the city, which police did not immediately confirm.