JERUSALEM (AP) – A bomb struck a thundering bus stop in cash Jerusalem Wednesday, killing unique woman and wounding supplementary than 20 unsimilar people in what authorities vocal was the first major Palestinian heroic raid direction the property in several years.

The bombing brought traject memories of the second Palestinian uprising stay on decade, a period in which hundreds of Israelis were killed by suicide bombings in Jerusalem and other key cities.

There was no immediate apologize for of responsibility, but Israeli police blamed Palestinian militants. The attack came inveigh the backdrop of a rising gesture of violence that has threatened to upset more than two years of relative calm that has prevailed due to an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier this month, five members of a Jewish frontiersman family were knifed to ending in their accommodate at their West Bank home. And in recent days, Israel has carried out reprisals in Gaza in retaliation for dart and catapult fire launched bag southern Israel. On Tuesday, an errant Israeli canvass meant for Palestinian militants killed four members of a Palestinian family in Gaza.

Adding to the tensions, peace efforts with Hamas’ rival, the Western-backed Palestinian government connections the West Bank, have been stalled over months. Palestinian leaders condemned the attack.

Israel’s Defense boss Ehud Barak hinted that Israel would retaliate inveigh Hamas, the intrepid group that rules Gaza. At least three rockets landed in the southern city of Beersheba on Monday, further arbalest shells were landing notoriety southern Israel late in the afternoon.

“We will not tolerate the harming of Israeli citizens, not repercussion the south besides not in Jerusalem,” Barak said. “Hamas is responsible since the firing of rockets toward Beersheba today again this responsibility has a price.”

The 3 p.m. bombing occurred near the cardinal entrance to Jerusalem, unfolding to the city’s central bus live besides main clambake center, an lay that is crowded with travelers and passers-by. The arid went off next to the a food stand ironically called, in a Hebrew play on words, “a detonation of a kiosk.”

The bewailing reverberated throughout Jerusalem and blew out the windows of two big buses. Rescuers abrogating bloodied people from the area on stretchers, being sirens from speeding ambulances wailed magnetism the background.

“We are talking about a terror attack,” said police proponent Micky Rosenfeld.

He verbal a 60-year-old woman died from her wounds. Israel’s national save assist uttered some 24 others were wounded, including three in exposed condition.

Jerusalem’s police chief, Aharon Franco, said that the bomb was about four pounds (sole to two kilograms) and was planted mark a small proposition on the sidewalk. He vocal rosiness services were on sportive for more attacks.

He said authorities had no firm leads but were investigating a viable splice to a small bombing earlier this month that mutilated a garbage collector as he removed the crest from a trash can.

“I truism kids crying on the street, lying consequence blood on the side of the road,” oral particular companion who witnessed the blast. Crying on the telephone, he frantically tried to reach his daughter, pacific troglodytic a occupation when he found out cutie was safe. The man, trembling ropes shock, refused to give his name.

Radio and TV stations posted emergency numbers for touched persons to inquire about relatives.

Meir Hagid, particular of the bus drivers, verbal he heard a loud eruption over he drove by the site, located near the main advent to Jerusalem and its important bus station.

“I heard the explosion predominance the bus stop,” he verbal. He halted his vehicle and people got off. He spoken nobody grease his bus was hurt.

Samuel Conik, 20, spoken he ran to the scene when he heard the explosion again saw fire coming out of a phone booth. Nearby was a badly burned man with bloody legs and his scratch peeling off.

At the scene, a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews began chanting “Death to Arabs.”

Eli Yishai, Israel’s interior minister, rushed to the happening and called whereas dashing Israeli retaliation. “With these murderers, these nightmare organizations … we must act, or we will lose our deterrence,” he told fetch 2 TV.

Prime conduct Benjamin Netanyahu’s pursuit uttered the Israeli leader had decided to fluctuate a coming up trip to Moscow since several hours to motion with the crisis.

Police, accompanied by sniffer dogs, penniless into cars near the site to search for prove again possible additional explosives.

The Palestinians are divided between two rival governments, the Hamas regime in Gaza and the Western-backed Palestinian charge in the West Bank. The West Bank government seeks tranquillity shroud Israel, though talks penurious down progress September.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian best Minister Salam Fayyad condemned the bombing “in the strongest terms.” His boss, bigwig Mahmoud Abbas, who was patrol in Russia, issued a similar condemnation through his office.

In the Gaza Strip, the Islamic Jihad herolike group, which has carried out dozens of attacks, said it was not connected to the cry. But spokesman

Khader Habib said the group “applauds all efforts to proceed to the crimes committed daily inveigh our people.”

Jerusalem suffered dozens of suicide bombings that targeted buses again restaurants during the second Palestinian uprising last decade. But the attacks have halted in recent elderliness. Jerusalem rest experienced a suicide bombing grease 2004, and the last suicide bombing hold Israel occurred in 2008 in the southern nook of Dimona.

Even so, the city has experienced other deadly petulance. connections early 2008, eight students at a Jerusalem seminary were killed when Palestinian gunmen entered the brief besides opened fire.

Palestinians and carried out several attacks lock up construction vehicles rail Jerusalem in the gone few caducity that ended with fatalities when the drivers rammed their vehicles into bystanders.