Posted on 08/31/2004 11:12:34 PM PDT by yonif
The crowd of nail-biting, tear-streaked people clustered around Soroka Hospital's emergency wing parted to make way for the newly bereaved family, their murmuring voices drowned out by Miri Yossef's screams.
"Why? Why? Why?" the 19-year-old wailed. "Why did they take my brother?"
Yossef's brother Emanuel had come down to his hometown from Tel Hai College near Kiryat Shmona to look for work when the bus he was traveling on was blown up by a suicide bomber.
He left behind four siblings, one of whom, said Emanuel, 28, was soon to be married. "He was a person that loved everyone, that loved nature, that loved everything," said his brother, who declined to give his name. He supported his distraught sister Miri while he spoke, lashing out at Israeli leftists and Arabs for his brother's death.
"Write this down," he said. "It's because of the Left that all the terror attacks happen."
Nearby, an off-duty policeman waited for word of his sister's condition, though he said she had only suffered light wounds. Her four-year-old son had cuts on his nose, he added, but seemed otherwise all right.
The officer was on his way to Beersheba's Central Bus Station when he heard the explosions. He didn't know that his sister was on the bus, but he said, "I had a feeling that something wasn't right."
"Instinct" led him to the hospital, where he saw her and her son being admitted. Hours later, he still had no further news on her condition.
Laskar Prosper contemplated his own luck at not being on one of the two bombed buses. He said he was "relaxed" now, smoking a cigarette outside the waiting room and fielding calls from concerned relatives after being treated for shock.
He criticized security services for not having a guard stationed at the bus stop where he had been standing when the No. 12 and 7 drove by. Two girls who had been waiting with him got on, but since he needed the No. 8 to make the daily trip to his father's house, he didn't board either one.
Moments later he heard the first "weak" blast. "I threw down my bag and started running to save people." On his way to the scene, he saw the second bus explode.
"There was smoke, smoke and fire." he said. "I saw a man come off the bus with torn clothing."
He needed treatment, he said, because "it was so painful seeing that these people who had been living were dead."
"It's because of the Left that all the terror attacks happen."
Yep, it sure is!! Our condolences to the victims families!
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