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The 2002 Jaffa Street bombing was a suicide bombing which occurred on January 27, 2002 in the center of Jerusalem. One civilian was killed and about 100 civilians injured.

A Palestinian terrorist attack on Sbarro, a pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem, took place on 9 August 2001, in which 15 civilians were killed, including 7 children and a pregnant woman, and 130 wounded.

The Downtown Triangle (Hebrew: המשולש, Ha-Meshulash, lit. "The Triangle"; Arabic: مثلث وسط المدينة) is a central commercial and entertainment district in Western Jerusalem. Measuring 29,000 square metres (310,000 sq ft), the area is bounded by Jaffa Road on the north, King George Street on the west, and Ben Yehuda Street on the southeast. Its vertices are the intersections of Jaffa Road and King George Street, King George and Ben Yehuda Streets, and Ben Yehuda Street and Jaffa Road (the latter known as Zion Square). From the mid-1940s through the 1960s, the Triangle was the commercial and cultural heart of Jerusalem, with many upscale shops and restaurants operated by German-Jewish immigrant businessmen that appealed to an affluent clientele. Following the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967 and the expansion of the city away from the downtown core, the commercial viability of the Triangle declined. The area was revitalized by the conversion of Ben Yehuda Street and the interior streets of the Triangle to an open-air pedestrian mall in 1982. Over the next two decades, outdoor cafes and souvenir shops moved in, cementing the reputation of the Triangle as a popular shopping and entertainment venue for tourists and young Israelis.

Bikur Cholim Hospital (Hebrew: בית החולים ביקור חולים) was a 200-bed general hospital in West Jerusalem, established in the 19th century and closed due to financial difficulties in the second decade of the 21st century. Until then, it was the oldest hospital in the country still operating. Bikur Cholim had obstetrics and cardiac departments, a modern neonatal intensive care unit, a pediatrics department, and bariatric and plastic surgery units. After 2010 it treated some 60,000 patients annually. With 700 administrators, doctors, nurses, technicians and cleaners, it was one of Jerusalem's largest downtown employers. One-third of the doctors were Israeli Arabs, many of whom chose Bikur Holim for their residencies.In December 2012 the hospital was taken over by Shaare Zedek Medical Center and continued to function as a branch of Shaare Zedek. The main hospital was then closed down, with the building on Haneviim (Prophets') Street, the maternity ward, which serves the residents of the nearby neighborhoods and various clinics, continuing to operate. At the same time, plans were submitted to the planning authorities for the restoration of the historic structure and its integration into a complex that includes commercial and housing areas. In 2020 the authorities have decided to also close the maternity ward, following guidelines which require such wards be located next to hospitals that can provide special medical services in case they are needed.

Even Yisrael (Hebrew: אבן ישראל, Rock of Israel) is a former courtyard neighborhood in Jerusalem. Built in 1875, it was the sixth Jewish neighborhood to be established outside the Old City walls. It is now part of the Nachlaot neighborhood. In 2004 the neighborhood underwent preservation and renovation by the Jerusalem Municipality, which re-paved and re-landscaped the central courtyard and added a small stone amphitheater for tour groups and daytime passersby.

On 13 November 1975, a bomb exploded outside an ice cream parlor in Jerusalem, Israel. The bomb had been placed in a baggage cart by Arab militants and exploded outside an ice cream shop in Zion Square on Jaffa Road at around 7:00 pm. Many Storefronts were damaged. Six teenagers were killed that night, and another died the next day. Including three boys and three girls. 42 people were injured, including two tourists from the United States and Netherlands, all of which were treated at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Two Lebanon-based Palestinian groups, Fatah and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack, which happened three days after United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 was passed, and on the anniversary of Yasser Arafat's speech to the United Nations. According to historian Richard J. Chasdi the attack was perpetrated by Fatah and was intentionally meant to coincide with the speech's anniversary. Wafa described the bombing as "a heroic and daring operation" which had caused "[a] large number of casualties among the settlers... according to preliminary estimates 20 were killed and 50 wounded, most seriously."

The siege of Jerusalem (circa 589–587 BCE) was the final event of the Judahite revolts against Babylon, in which Nebuchadnezzar II, king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, besieged Jerusalem, the capital city of the Kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem fell after a 30-month siege, following which the Babylonians systematically destroyed the city and the First Temple. The Kingdom of Judah was dissolved and many of its inhabitants were exiled to Babylon. During the late 7th century BCE, Judah became a vassal kingdom of Babylon. In 601 BCE, Jehoiakim, king of Judah, revolted against Babylonian rule despite the strong remonstrances of the prophet Jeremiah. Jehoiakim died for reasons unclear, and was succeeded by his son, Jeconiah. In 597 BCE, the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, and the city surrendered. Nebuchadnezzar pillaged Jerusalem and deported Jeconiah and other prominent citizens to Babylon; Jeconiah's uncle, Zedekiah, was installed as king. Later, encouraged by the Egyptians, Zedekiah launched a second revolt, and a Babylonian army was sent to retake Jerusalem.On Tisha B'Av, 25 August 587 BCE or 18 July 586 BCE, the Babylonians took Jerusalem, destroyed the First Temple and burned down the city. The small settlements surrounding the city, and those close to the western border of the kingdom, were destroyed as well. According to the Bible, Zedekiah attempted to escape, but was captured near Jericho. He was forced to watch the execution of his sons in Riblah, and his eyes were then put out.The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple led to a religious, spiritual and political crisis, which left its mark in prophetic literature and biblical tradition. The Kingdom of Judah was abolished and annexed as a Babylonian province with its center in Mizpah. The Judean elite, including the Davidic dynasty, were exiled to Babylon. After Babylon had fallen to Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, in 539 BCE, he allowed the exiled Judeans to return to Zion and rebuild Jerusalem. The Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE.

West Jerusalem or Western Jerusalem (Hebrew: מַעֲרַב יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, Ma'aráv Yerushaláyim; Arabic: القدس الغربية, al-Quds al-Ġarbiyyah) refers to the section of Jerusalem that was controlled by Israel at the end of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. As the city was divided by the Green Line (Israel's erstwhile de facto border, established by the 1949 Armistice Agreements), West Jerusalem was formally delineated as the counterpart to East Jerusalem, which was controlled by Jordan. Though Israel has controlled the entirety of Jerusalem since the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, the boundaries of West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem remain internationally recognized as de jure due to their significance to the process of determining the status of Jerusalem, which has been among the primary points of contention in the Arab–Israeli conflict and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. With certain exceptions, undivided Jerusalem is not internationally recognized as the sovereign territory of either Israel or the State of Palestine. However, recognition of Israeli sovereignty over only West Jerusalem is more widely accepted as a plausible diplomatic position, as the United Nations regards East Jerusalem as part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

On July 4, 1975, a Palestinian terrorist exploded a booby-trapped refrigerator which contained five kilograms of explosives inside an appliance store at Zion Square in the center of Jerusalem, killing 15 people and wounding 77.

Ezrat Yisrael (Hebrew: עזרת ישראל, "Help of Israel") is a former courtyard neighborhood in Jerusalem. The neighborhood consisted of buildings on either side of a lane, today named Ezrat Yisrael Street. The street is blocked on one end and opens onto Jaffa Road on the other end.

Ben Yehuda Street (Hebrew: רחוב בן יהודה), known as the "Midrachov" (Hebrew: מדרחוב), is arguably the most famous street in Jerusalem, along with Jaffa Road. Ben Yehuda Street joins with Jaffa Road and King George Street in the heart of downtown Jerusalem to form the main Downtown Triangle central business district. Closed to vehicular traffic, the street is now Jerusalem's most popular pedestrian mall. The street runs from the intersection of King George Street east to Zion Square and Jaffa Road. The street is named after the founder of Modern Hebrew, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda.

Zion Square (Hebrew: כיכר ציון, Kikar Tziyon) is a public square in Jerusalem, located at the intersection of Jaffa Road, Ben Yehuda Street, Herbert Samuel Street, and Yoel Moshe Salomon Street. The square is one of the vertices of the Downtown Triangle commercial district. Since the British Mandate era, Zion Square has been the focal point of the cultural life of downtown Jerusalem. The square is busy day and night with tourists, elderly immigrants, overseas students, local youth, street performers, and religious activists. In recent decades, the square has become a hangout for disaffected and homeless youth. From the 1930s to 2011, the square was a popular site for mass protests and demonstrations.