Car Bomb Explodes in Trendy Jerusalem Area

A nail-studded car bomb apparently set by Palestinian militants exploded in one of central Jerusalem’s main entertainment districts early this morning, sending flames into the night sky.

Three people were treated at the scene for shock and a fourth for minor injuries, police said.

Police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby quoted witnesses as saying that two men had parked a car in the parking lot a few minutes before the explosion. The lot is near a Russian Orthodox cathedral, a police station and a popular street full of discos and restaurants.

The two men left the scene in a second car, Ben-Ruby said. Police were searching for them with the help of helicopters.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a dissident Palestinian group, claimed responsibility for the bombing and said it had targeted a police station.

The blast came less than two days after back-to-back suicide bombings and hours after thousands of Palestinians poured into the West Bank and Gaza Strip for funerals of a suicide bomber and a militant.

At the funerals Saturday, children carried posters of the dead. Mourners shouted “Revenge for the martyrs!” as the remains of Hussein Abu Nasser and Azzam Mizher were carried through the crowds in the separate funerals.

In the Gaza Strip, about 2,000 people marched through the Jabaliya refugee camp to mourn Abu Nasser, a suicide bomber who died Friday.

The Israeli army said he tried to drive into a fortified Israeli army outpost in Gaza. Soldiers opened fire, and the vehicle exploded. The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the blast.

In the second bombing Friday, a car carrying explosives plowed into an Israeli bus in the coastal town of Hadera, killing the two bombers and injuring as many as 63 Israelis.

The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility.

Mizher was killed Friday when a bomb exploded in the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank, Palestinian officials said Saturday.