At least 24 people have been killed and 42 injured after a car bomb struck a bus carrying government employees in western Kabul on Monday, an official told AFP, the latest attack to strike the Afghan capital.

“The car bomb hit a bus carrying employees of the ministry of mines during rush hour,” interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told AFP.

No militant group immediately claimed the blast, but it came as the Taliban have stepped up attacks across the country in recent days, with several new districts falling to the militants over the weekend.

The neighbourhood in which Monday’s bomb detonated is home to many Shia Hazaras, a persecuted ethnic minority who have been targeted many times in the past.

It is also near prominent politician and former warlord Mohammad Mohaqeq’s home. Omid Maisom Mohaqiq, a spokesman for the politician, said the bomb had detonated near the first checkpoint approaching the house, “killing and wounding some civilians”.

Kabul is regularly rocked by suicide bombs and attacks. A recent UN report showed they accounted for nearly one-fifth of all civilian Afghan casualties in the first half of 2017.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which has been documenting civilian casualties since 2009, said in its recent report that 1,662 civilians were killed and more than 3,500 injured in the first six months of the year.

Many of those deaths happened in a devastating single attack in Kabul in late May when a truck bomb exploded, also during the morning rush hour, killing more than 150 people and injuring hundreds.

UNAMA put the civilian death toll at 92, saying it was the deadliest incident to hit the country since 2001.

The bloody toll for the first six months of 2017 has unsettled the government of President Ashraf Ghani, who has come under increasing pressure since the May attack in Kabul.

Protests and deadly street clashes hit the Afghan capital in the wake of the May attack as people incensed by security failures called for his government’s resignation.

The UNAMA report also said that nearly half of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces have seen an increase in civilian deaths in the first six months of the year, mainly due to the rise in attacks by anti-government forces across the country.

NATO’s combat mission in Afghanistan ended three years ago, handing sole responsibility to the country’s security forces, who has also suffered spiralling casualties ever since as they try to beat back the resurgent Taliban and contain the growing threat from the Islamic State group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced mounting pressure on Sunday over new security measures at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site after a weekend of violence left eight people dead, with fears of further unrest.

Israeli officials signalled they may be open to changing the measures at the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, after metal detectors were installed at entrances following an attack that killed two policemen.

The detectors remained in place on Sunday, though cameras had also been mounted near at least one entrance to the compound in Jerusalem’s Old City — a possible indication of an alternative.

Mr. Netanyahu was also holding a cabinet meeting and was due to meet his security cabinet later.

“Since the start of the events, I have held a series of assessments with security elements including those in the field,” he said at the start of the meeting.

“We are receiving from them an up-to-date picture of the situation, as well as recommendations for action, and we will decide accordingly.”

Israeli Major General Yoav Mordechai — head of COGAT, the defence ministry agency responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories — signalled changes to the policy were possible.

“We are examining other options and alternatives that will ensure security,” Gen. Mordechai said in an interview with Al-Jazeera.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who has announced he was freezing contacts with Israel over the dispute, said Sunday this included the security coordination that has been credited with preventing wider unrest in recent years.

“They must know that they will be the main losers because we play an important role in assuring our security and theirs,” Mr. Abbas said.

The crisis has resonated internationally.

The UN Security Council will hold closed-door talks on Monday about the spiralling violence.

Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit on Sunday accused Israel of “playing with fire” with the new security measures, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called them an insult to the Muslim world.

Pope Francis said he was following events with concern and urged dialogue and moderation.

Week of tensions

Tensions have risen throughout the past week over the metal detectors at the compound, which includes the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, following the July 14 attack that killed two policemen.

Palestinians view the move as Israel asserting further control over the site. They have refused to enter the compound in protest and have prayed in the streets outside.

Israeli authorities say the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the site and emerged from it to shoot the officers.

Friday’s main weekly Muslim prayers — which typically draw thousands to Al-Aqsa — brought the situation to a boil.

In anticipation of protests, Israel barred men under 50 from entering the Old City for prayers.

Clashes broke out between Israeli security forces and Palestinians around the Old City, in other parts of annexed east Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank, leaving three Palestinians dead.

On Friday evening, a Palestinian broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank during a Sabbath dinner and stabbed four Israelis, killing three.

The Israeli army said the 19-year-old Palestinian had spoken in a Facebook post of the holy site and of dying as a martyr.

On Saturday, Palestinian youths hurled stones and petrol bombs as the army used a bulldozer to close off the attacker’s West Bank village and prepare his house for demolition.

Mr. Netanyahu said on Sunday the demolition would go ahead “as soon as possible”.

Israel frequently razes or seals attackers’ homes as a deterrent, although rights groups say this amounts to collective punishment.

Clashes also flared in east Jerusalem and other Palestinian villages in the West Bank near Jerusalem on Saturday, police said.

Two Palestinians died, including one when a petrol bomb exploded prematurely.

Hamas arrests

Israeli security forces said on Sunday they had arrested 25 men active in the militant Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip.

The arrests throughout the West Bank included “senior members”, a statement from the Shin Bet internal security agency said, and was part of preventive measures in the wake of “the tensions around the Temple Mount”.

Also on Sunday, a rocket fired at Israel from Gaza hit an open area, the Israeli army said, causing no injuries. No Palestinian group claimed the attack.

The holy site in Jerusalem has served as a rallying cry for Palestinians.

In 2000, then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon’s visit to the compound helped ignite the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which lasted more than four years.

The Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It is in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.

Considered the third holiest site in Islam, it is the most sacred for Jews.