Police have confirmed that a bus explosion in the industrial area of Jerusalem’s Talpiot neighborhood early Monday evening, April 18, in which 21 persons were injured, including one critically, was the result of a bomb. The bus exploded at around 5:45 p.m. as it was passing near Talpiot carrying a number of passengers, police said. The blast set ablaze a car and a second empty bus, injuring several more people.

Firefighters and the two burning buses destroyed in the Jerusalem bomb blast, April 18, 2016 (Photo: Israel Police)

Head of the Joint, MK List Ayman Odeh (Hadash), condemned the attack, but also attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I strongly condemn the explosion today in Jerusalem in which many civilians were injured. Harming civilians is unacceptable; it also harms the just Palestinian struggle to end the occupation,” Odeh said.  “The Netanyahu government feeds the cycle of violence, and is fed by it. Desperation is fertile ground for terror, and only a diplomatic settlement will bring security to the two peoples,” he added.