'I heard an awful noise; everything went black'

Driver Shalom Zakin left Hadassah-University Hospital in Ein Kerem Wednesday morning on what seemed like routine run with a No. 19 Egged bus, only to find himself back there shortly afterwards as one of the wounded from the suicide bus attack on Rehov Aza (Gaza Road).

Dazed and lying on a hospital gurney, wrapped in a blanket, he tried to recall the attack. The bomber slipped onto the bus, and he never noticed a thing. "I don't remember exactly what happened, I drove on Rehov Aza, I picked up passengers at the first and second stops. All kinds of passengers got on and off. It was like every morning, nothing suspicious," Zakin said. Twenty meters after the bus left a stop there was an explosion.

Moshe Benita, a 17-year-old pupil at the Ankori School, was sitting right behind the driver. He was one of the lucky ones, able to walk right out the door, without a scratch and only ringing in his ears.

"I heard a terrible noise and then everything went black. There was a moment of silence and then I saw blood everywhere and bodies on the floor," Benita said in a quiet voice from Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Hospital.

Immediately after getting off the bus he went to a nearby travel agency to call home and tell his father he was all right. "He hadn't heard about the suicide bombing until I called to say I survived it."

"I was angry at myself for not driving him to school," said his father, Motti, as he ran his fingers fondly through his son's dark hair outside the emergency room. "I had a premonition, but let him take the bus. I often try to take him to avoid the bus whenever I can." He added that he had a message for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon: "When you release terrorists in a deal, this is what you get – more terror!"

Passenger Svetlana Minchiker said she was talking on her cellphone as the blast went off — a bang that left her so disoriented she thought at first the phone had exploded. "At first I did not see anything except my hands," she said, holding up one hand still stained red. A trickle of dried blood stained her left cheek.

"As my feelings slowly returned to me, I managed to... crawl through the window."

Two 17-year-olds, Dror and Ido, were walking on Rehov Aza on their way to school when they heard the explosion. They climbed to the top of an apartment building to get a better look at the scene.

At first it was quiet, then there were screams, they said. The roof of the bus had blown into the air and there were flesh and bodies on the ground, they recalled.

Dr. Rami Shapira, Shaare Zedek's physician in charge of emergencies and mass catastrophes, said the hospital had received 18 patients, five of them in serious condition. As soon as they learned of the terror attack, the staff went into their well-oiled routine of readying the emergency room and surgical theaters as well as its information team that received relatives of the wounded and phone calls.

Shapira recalled that the last time a suicide bomber had killed Jerusalemites was five months ago, when the head of its emergency medicine department, Dr. David Applebaum, was murdered in a cafe on Rehov Emek Refaim with his daughter on the eve of her wedding.

Metiv, the free Jerusalem crisis center run by Herzog Hospital, said it was ready to help all trauma victims who felt anxious as a result of the attack. Victims, family members, eyewitnesses and others, including those who felt stress even though they had not observed it, were invited to go to the center at Rehov Hadishon 21 in the Malha quarter. The phone number of the walk-in clinic, which is manned Sundays through Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Fridays until 1 p.m. by experienced psychologists and other professionals, is (02) 679-9566.

To: SJackson; Yehuda; Nachum; Paved Paradise; Thinkin' Gal; Bobby777; adam_az; Alouette; IFly4Him; ...

2 posted on 01/29/2004 7:29:24 PM PST by yonif ("If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem, Let My Right Hand Wither" - Psalms 137:5)

"At first it was quiet, then there were screams, they said. The roof of the bus had blown into the air and there were flesh and bodies on the ground, they recalled."

The filthy Islamic terrorist bastards should be annihilated.

I piss on Islam.

3 posted on 01/29/2004 7:33:14 PM PST by TSgt (I am proudly featured on U.S. Rep Rob Portman's homepage: http://www.house.gov/portman/)

Who has the pictures of the type of injuries that happens from the suicide bombings. I saw someone post them on another thread. there were x-rays as well as pics of all the flesh wounds. I showed this to some people that were sympathetic with the pals, after they saw those pics they became quite disgusted. We need to post those pics everywhere. A picture is worth a thousand words!!!

5 posted on 01/29/2004 9:01:46 PM PST by yonif ("If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem, Let My Right Hand Wither" - Psalms 137:5)

The filthy Islamic terrorist bastards should be annihilated.
I piss on Islam.

Me, too, friend. Me, too.

Yet, people like you and me are chastised for feeling that way.

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