Israeli sources have confirmed, Wednesday, the death of an Israeli-Canadian teen and the injury of about twenty-two Israelis in two separate explosions near a bus stop in Givat Shaul in West Jerusalem.
Updated: Israeli sources said a second Israeli, Tadasa Tashume Ben Ma’ada, 50, succumbed to serious wounds in Shaare Zedek Medical Center on November 26.
Israeli sources said Ben Ma’ada was an immigrant from Ethiopia after he came to the country 21 years ago. He was a married father of six children.
According to Israeli sources, the Police, army, and internal security initiated a massive manhunt looking for those responsible for the two bombings and described the incident as the first of this magnitude of its kind in many years.
Israeli daily Haaretz said the head of the Israeli Police Operations Division, Sigal Bar Zvi, described the explosives used in the two attacks as of “high quality,” adding that the explosives were placed in a bush behind a bus station.
The Police believe that explosives were left several hours before they were remotely detonated, an issue seen as a sign of a pre-planned sophisticated attack. The two explosives were detonated 30 minutes apart.
Haaretz said that blasts killed Aryeh Shechopek, 16, an Israeli teen and a Yeshiva student who also holds Canadian citizenship, adding that his funeral was held in Jerusalem a few hours after he was killed.
Also, more than twenty Israelis were injured in the bombings, including one in critical condition.
Israeli Ynet News said, according to the preliminary evaluation of the bombings, it is believed that several persons are behind the attack that seems to have been in the planning stage for a long period, adding that it does not appear that it was conducted under the direction of the leadership of any armed group.
Ynet added that the persons behind the bombings appeared familiar with the area and scouted its surroundings before choosing the exact time to inflict larger casualties.
It also said that the explosives used in the two bombings were “relatively small but densely packed with nails and metal shrapnel that caused the lion’s share of the damage.”
The Israeli police and security agencies are investigating “whether the people behind the bombings entered Israel from the West Bank and could be from East Jerusalem.”
According to the Jerusalem Post, the explosive used in the second explosion at the Ramot junction was smaller than the first and added that Israeli security and police assessments indicate that the same person likely placed both explosives.
It said that the first explosion occurred at the entrance of Jerusalem near the Central Bus Station, while the second explosive detonated in the Ramot neighborhood, adding that both explosions occurred at bus stops during rush hours.
Following the bombings, the Israeli army and the Police closed all main roads in Jerusalem and deployed hundreds of additional troops in addition to installing roadblocks.
In related news, Israeli colonizers attacked dozens of Palestinian cars and homes in Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus and several parts of the occupied West Bank, causing damage.
It is worth mentioning that Ynet said a news anchor working with an Army Radio was suspended from her work after insinuating that the Jerusalem blasts “might be connected to the ongoing negotiations to form a coalition government.”
Ynet added that, in an on-air coverage, the anchor, Hadas Shtaif, said “Police also said that due to fruitful negotiations with a certain character who is about to receive a certain position in the new government – emotions are tense, and these emotions also have to do with the situation.”
