JERUSALEM (voa) – Israeli police say a Palestinian suicide bomber wounded four Israelis and killed himself when he detonated explosives in central Jerusalem Tuesday.
The attacker set off his bomb at a food stand on a busy street in one of the most heavily-guarded areas of Jerusalem.
It was the first suicide bombing in the city since two consecutive days of such attacks last month killed 26 Israelis. After those bombings, the Israeli military re-occupied seven Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank and imposed severe restrictions on residents.
Israel has been bracing for violence since last week’s airstrike in Gaza City that killed a Palestinian militant leader and 14 civilians. Palestinian militant groups have vowed to avenge the Israeli attack.
Shortly before today’s blast in Jerusalem, Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli settlers who had gone to sell fuel in a Palestinian village south of the West Bank town of Nablus. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades says it carried out the attack.
Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who entered a Jewish settlement – also near Nablus – and stabbed a man and his wife. The couple is said to be seriously wounded. Meanwhile, Palestinians in Nablus defied an army curfew for a third day, moving about freely in the center of the city and in markets. Israeli troops remained in armored vehicles ringing the city but took no action to enforce the curfew. Palestinians under Israeli curfew in the West Bank have not previously challenged army restrictions on a mass scale.
