A British woman was killed by a bomb at a bus stop in Jerusalem yesterday.
“We can confirm the death of a British national,” said a Foreign Office spokeswoman.
She also said that the woman’s family in the UK had been informed.
Fear for the collapse of the Middle East peace process
The 1-2kg bomb, inside a suitcase left at a bus stop, killed the 60-year-old Brit and injured another 30 people.
Three of those were said to be seriously hurt.
This is the first bombing in Jerusalem in seven years, and was condemned by both the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as well as Palestine’s Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Netanyahu, guaranteed he would act “aggressively, responsibly and wisely” in response to the bombing.
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad also branded the actions a “terrorist attack”.
Meanwhile, an Islamic Jihad leader defended the attack, saying it was a “natural response” to Israel’s air strikes in Gaza earlier this week.
Israel’s military actions came after Palestinian militants had fired rockets into southern Israel.
Also US President Barack Obama criticised the Jerusalem bombing, saying:
“Israel, like all nations, has a right to self-defence.”
Obama did, however, also offer his “deepest condolences” to the Palestinian families who had lost their loved ones in Israel’s recent air strikes.