Jerusalem bus bomb kills one and injures 30

t was the culmination of a day of violence, one that began with rocket attacks, fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, on the Biblical city of Beersheba and ended with rising expectation of war.

Following the attack, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said that Israel would act "aggressively, responsibly and wisely" in wake of a recent upsurge in violence.

Even before the bomb, Mr Netanyahu had hinted he would respond to an upsurge in rocket fire from Gaza with a fresh military offensive on Gaza. By nightfall, MPs in his Likud party were predicting that Israel's attack could come "within days".

Minutes before 3pm, the ominous crump of an explosion echoed through Jerusalem. Shoppers on Jaffa Street, the city's principal thoroughfare, paused mid-stride and then began to run.

The sudden eruption of wailing sirens moments later confirmed what many in a city inured to violence had instinctively suspected immediately: the unofficial ceasefire in Jerusalem was over.