Following Wednesday’s twin bombings in Jerusalem that killed a 16-year-old school boy and injured at least 22, the Israeli security forces are hunting for the terrorists behind the coordinated attack.
Two powerful bombs went off at two separate bus stands in western Jerusalem during the rush hour. The bombs, described by the police as “high-quality, powerful explosive devices,” were placed inside bags packed with nails to cause maximum harm to the early morning commuters.
The Times of Israel reported the ongoing manhunt:
A senior officer said police were hunting for an organized terror cell that detonated two “high quality” explosive devices at two bus stops near entrances to Jerusalem on Wednesday morning, killing one and wounding more than 20 others.Speaking to reporters, the head of the police operations division said the “two high-quality, powerful explosive devices with a high level of damage” were hidden behind the bus stop and in a bush. (…)Due to the nature of the attack with two near-identical bombs exploding within half an hour of each other at two bus stops, Deputy Commissioner Sigal Bar Zvi said police suspected an organized cell was behind it, rather than just one person. “I believe we will capture the terror cell,” she said.
On Thursday, Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet caught a Gaza resident trying to carry out a bus bombing in southern Israel.
It is unclear if the suspect had any links to the bombings in Jerusalem. The Gazan, who had been granted a permit to work in Israel, was reportedly recruited by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group, an ally of the Islamist outfit Hamas that controls Gaza.
“The agency arrested 31-year-old Fathi Ziad Zakot, a resident of Rafiah in the southern Gaza Strip, who the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group had recruited to plant a bomb on a bus in the south of the country,” The Jerusalem Post reported.
“According to [Shin Bet], Zakot underwent explosive training by terrorists in the Hamas-ruled enclave and had begun collecting explosive materials to assemble the bomb while he was in Israel,” the newspaper added.
While no terrorist organization came forward to take responsibility for the bombings, Palestinian Islamist groups, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), hailed the attacks on Israeli civilians. The Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist militia, Hezbollah, also rejoiced over the Jerusalem bombings.
The Jerusalem Post reported:
The Hamas terrorist movement welcomed the attack on Wednesday, stating that Israel bears “full responsibility for the repercussions of the crimes of its army and the terror of its settlers against our Palestinian people, their land and their sanctities.”The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist movement called the attack a “natural response to the occupation.”Hezbollah praised the terrorist attack on Wednesday afternoon, calling it a “true embodiment of the Palestinian people’s rejection of the continuation of the occupation.””The implementation of these two operations today confirms the resistance’s ability to penetrate the enemy’s strict security measures and precautions, and to deal painful blows to it in the place and time of its choice,” said the Hezbollah terrorist movement.
As we reported yesterday, Palestinian residents in the Israeli city of Hebron and the West Bank were seen distributing sweets to ‘celebrate’ the deadly blasts.
While the Palestinian terror groups rejoiced at the latest act of barbaric terrorism, an analysis in the Israeli news website Ynet News pointed the finger at another nefarious player — the Islamic State (ISIS):
The manner in which the attacks in Jerusalem were carried out is similar to Islamic State’s modus operandi – two explosive charges placed in highly populated public areas, with the second exploding some time after the first.Explosives being placed in bags and operated remotely is a method favored by Islamic State members in Europe, and also in Israel. It could be that its members wanted to target areas where there’s a large religious and ultra-Orthodox Jewish population, pointing to a possible Islamist and religious motive.
ISIS has been linked to a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Israel that occurred earlier this year, coinciding with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
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