Pinay among 30 hurt in Jerusalem bus station blast

A Filipina was among the 30 confirmed injured when an explosion rocked a bus station in a Jewish district of Jerusalem on March 23, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed on Friday. A DFA release said the Filipina, identified as Elsa Torres, was hit by glass fragments near her eye in the explosion believed by Israeli police to have been perpetrated out by Palestinian terrorists. According to the DFA, Torres was alighting from the bus when the bomb exploded. Torres, a caregiver according to reports, was taken by ambulance to the Adassa Hospital in Ein Kerem in Jerusalem and was treated for minor wounds. An elderly woman was killed in the explosion. Among the at least 30 injured, three were reported as having incurred serious injuries. "Embassy representatives were dispatched at the residence of her employer in Jerusalem, and I have spoken to her. I have ascertained that Ms. Torres is alright, except shaken by her experience. She has contacted her family and assured them about her condition," Ambassador Petronila Garcia said in the release. She added the Embassy has activated a text brigade and the Filipinos in Israel have been advised to exercise caution in light of the fragile security situation in the Israel-controlled city that has often been a war zone in the long-standing Israel-Palestine conflict. The DFA said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has called on the public to be alert and to return to their regular routines. It added, quoting news reports, that the bomb attacks heightened concerns in Israel that a stronger radical military presence is growing in the West Bank, even as Palestinian Authority leaders in the West Bank also denounced the attacks. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reported to have delayed his March 23 trip to Moscow because of the incident, the department added. Reports say the explosion is the first to hit the Holy City since September 2004 when a teenaged woman blew herself at a bus stop in east Jerusalem’s French Hill, killing two people. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going on for decades now, resulting in a large number of civilian fatalities on both sides, despite repeated attempts by the international community to broker a two-state solution to finally end the protracted strife.—Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMA News