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What happened: At 0705 local time there was a powerful explosion at a bus stop at the entrance of Jerusalem.

• So far one person was confirmed killed in the blast, whilst several others were wounded, including three in serious condition.
• Thirty minutes later there was a second explosion, one and half kilometres north at a second bus stop at the Ramot Junction, where three more people were injured.
• The initial assessment from the Police is that both explosions were caused by explosive devices left at the sites.
• In a separate incident yesterday, 20 armed men stormed a hospital in Jenin and removed the body of an Israeli teenager who was killed in a traffic accident.  The 18-year-old Tiran Fero from the Druze town of Daliyat al-Carmel had entered Jenin yesterday morning with a friend to get his car repaired. The pair were in a traffic accident and were taken to Ibn Sina Hospital in the city, where Fero underwent surgery.  The second injured Israeli was transferred to a hospital in Israel.
• The father and uncle of the dead teenager who were also in the hospital were able to return to Israel thanks to help from the Palestinian security services and in coordination with the IDF.

Context: The initial assessment suggests the bombing attacks were a coordinated attack at two separate locations.

• This was the first bombing attack in Jerusalem since one in April 2016 which was attributed to a Hamas suicide bomber that injured 21 people.  That attack was the first one since 2004.
• The attack this morning follows months of attacks, that until now had been shootings, stabbings and car rammings. In total 30 Israelis (both soldiers and civilians) have been killed in terror attacks this year, with hundreds injured in thousands of incidents.
• The Police are speculating whether the same person could have planted both bombs or if there is more than one assailant.
• They are also exploring the possibility that the bombs were detonated remotely via a mobile phone.
• Similar to the bombs during the Second Intifada, these bombs were filled with nails designed to inflict maximum damage.  The initial assessment suggests that the damage could have been significantly higher.
• The investigation has just begun, but the similarity of the two devises, their proximity and timing suggests a coordinated attack.
• Unlike ‘lone wolf’ stabbing attacks that require little or no planning, the explosive devises suggest a terror organisation was behind this attack.
• Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Yaakov Shabtai said: “We’re talking about a complex incident, a difficult incident with features of a kind we haven’t seen in a long time. We currently can’t say whether (both bombs were planted by) the same terrorist or two terrorists.”
• The terrorists who snatched the body in Jenin are understood to be affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
• There are also accounts that the injured boy was still alive, on a life support machine, and only died when the terrorists took him.
• The initial demands of the terrorists could be to release the bodies of terrorists killed in Jenin. However there is no expectation for negotiations.

Looking ahead: The outgoing prime minister, defence and public security ministers will soon be in consultation with the leadership of the security forces.

• Relating to the stolen body in Jenin, the IDF has closed checkpoints in the surrounding area.
• There is hope that the Palestinian Authority can assist in returning the body. If not, the IDF could launch a raid to retrieve the body.