Posted on 07/17/2002 6:03:12 AM PDT by Alouette
![]() |
A blood-stained stetcher at the scene of the bombing |
Last December, 11 Jews in this Israeli suburb were killed, when PLO terrorists opened fire on a commuter bus. The response was to provide residents here with armored and bullet-proof transportation.
But only in the topsy-turvy world of the Middle East could increased security and protection leave you dead.
Yesterday, when Palestinian gunmen disguised as Israeli soldiers set off two 20-kilo bombs along the same route, the bus responded with an automatic "safety switch" --- sealing the doors and trapping women, children and fetuses. While some passengers were able to break free, only to be murdered by the terrorists, others were killed instantly when bullets and grenades pierced areas of the bus that were not sufficiently armored.
In all, 16 people were injured, including eight seriously. No less than three Palestinian groups took credit for the attack. It took more than an hour to remove the dead due to various ammunition that filled the bus.
For wire services like Reuters and newspapers like The New York Times, the senseless deaths of civilians -- none, of whom had even a remote connection to the Israeli military -- are being linked to "a meeting of Middle East peace envoys in New York." The dead are just nameless, faceless statistics, while "spokesmen" are fully identified in the dispatches.
Below, we recount the last minutes on Earth for, among others, a 9-month old twin who was laughing as she traveled on her grandmother's lap; the high school student looking forward to his first day of summer vacation; the mother who had just passed her final exam to become an accredited teacher and the father who'd just completed immersing himself in holy texts that taught him to love and respect all of humanity.
Ayellet Shikon, 29, who ran Emannuel's day care center, had taken her twin 9 month-old daughters, Tiferet Sarah and Galia Esther and 2 year-old son, Ohr Chaim, to visit their grandmother, Zilpa Kashi, 65, and were returning home.
The terrorists first opened fire on the grandmother, who was holding one of the twins. Both grandmother and granddaughter died in each other's arms.
Ayellet had been holding in her lap the other twin, who was seriously injured, when the terrorists' bullets struck. As she watched in horror the blood from the woman who gave her life flow down the aisle with the child's she birthed, she dialed her husband, Gal, 35, on her cell phone.
"We're being shot at. There's a pigua here!" she screamed. The Torah scholar immediately left their home and spotted three soldiers. After alerting them to the developing situation, he learned their real identities when bullets pierced his body.
The 2 year-old was injured, when bullets exited his dead sister's head.
Yesterday at noon, Yehudit Weinberg, 22, completed her final test to receive a religious teacher's certification at the Bais Yaakov seminary in Bnei Brak. She was returning home to celebrate with her husband and year-old baby when she was fired upon by the terrorists. In her eighth month of pregnancy, she was rushed to ICU and gave birth via an emergency C-section to a son, who was sent a few miles away to a neo-natal unit, where he died.
At this filing, the mother -- Yehudit bat Ilana -- is in need of prayers.
Ilana Siton, 35, was the cosmetologist for the women of Emannuel. She and her daughter, Tehilla, 14, were returning from Bnai Brak, where they traveled to register the teen in a new religious high school. They had made a day of the chore by going shopping.
She died slumped over in the blood-stained lap of her daughter.
Her body will be buried alongside her cousin, who died in the December bombing at the same spot both lost their lives.
Yonatan Gamliel,16, had just finished his last day at yeshiva (rabbinical school) in Bnai Brak. Last night, was the beginning of his two-week summer vacation. When the first roadside bomb hit his bus, the teen immediately called his mother.
"I am OK. There was a bomb, but I'm OK," witnesses remember him saying. But as he waited in his "secure" shelter, bullets sprayed the top of the bus, killing him. He died with a cell-phone in his hand pushing "redial."
Karen Kashani, 20, a single mother, had been talking to her best friend on her cell-phone when the terrorists opened fire. The bus had automatically sealed its doors once the bombs went off. As pandemonium broke loose, some of the passengers, Karen among them, managed to force themselves out. But when escape hatch opened, was immediately mowed down by the terrorists.
Galila Adas, 46, was heading home to be with her 4 children, one of whom was seriously ill. The nurse, who had been up the entire night before caring for invalids, had her life ended with three bullets to her head.
Harvey Tannenbaum
Hamakom yinakum damom! (G*D avenge their blood.)
How heart breaking! Yes, Hamakom yinakum damom! (G*D avenge their blood) and comfort His people!
![]() |
Wed Jul 17, 7:35 AM ET |
Israeli soldiers patrol the road leading to the Israeli settlement of Emmanuel on July 17, 2002, a day after Palestinian gunmen ambushed an Israeli bus. Israel postponed talks with the Palestinian after the ambush, and its troops shot dead one of the attackers in a gunbattle. (Nir Elias/Reuters) |
![]() |
Wed Jul 17, 7:31 AM ET |
Israeli soldiers and local security men stand at the entrance of the Israeli settlement of Emmanuel on July 17, 2002, near the spot where Palestinian gunmen ambushed an Israeli bus yesterday, killing at least eight people and wounding another 20. Israel postponed talks with the Palestinians on Wednesday after the bus ambush. REUTERS/Nir Elias |
![]() |
Wed Jul 17, 7:28 AM ET |
Israeli soldiers monitor movements in a valley near the Israeli settlement of Emmanuel, July 17, 2002. Palestinian gunmen ambushed an Israeli bus yesterday, killing at least eight people and wounding another 20. Israel postponed talks with the Palestinians after the bus ambush, and its troops shot dead one of the attackers in a gunbattle. REUTERS/Nir Elias |
![]() |
Wed Jul 17, 5:49 AM ET |
The shadows of Israeli policemen are reflected in the bullet shattered windshield of an Israeli armoured bus ambushed by Palestinians near Emmanuel, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank July 16, 2002 which killed seven people and wounded another twenty. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh |
![]() |
Wed Jul 17, 2:10 AM ET |
Israeli policemen investigate the site of an attack after a Palestinian gunmen ambushed an Israeli armoured bus near Emmanuel, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank on July 16, 2002, killing seven people and wounded another twenty. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh |
![]() |
Mon Jul 15,11:54 PM ET |
An Israeli medical worker looks at debris beside a bullet shattered Israeli armored bus after an attack by Palestinian gunmen near Emmanuel, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, July 16, 2002 which killed seven people and wounded another twenty. The deadliest attack on Israel since Israeli forces occupied seven of eight Palestinian West Bank cities was claimed by a group linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, Hizbollah's al-Manar television said. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh |
My heart broke when I heard that the baby who was taken from his mother's womb had died. And then the anger started rising...and rising....
Hamakom yinakum damom!
They worship murder and death.
Well there you go! Jews riding in a bus. A provocation in anybody's book. Just ask yourself, how would I feel if I saw some Jews riding down a road in a bus? Just one more example of how the (peaceloving)palestinians are being oppressed by the evil bus riding Jews.
note I am being sarcastic.
I agree - and I'd say we've had some of the same issues. There is unfinished business in North Korea, as well as Iraq. When we fought Japan and Germany, they were totally defeated, evil ideologies shattered, and the countries ruled with the velvet-gloved iron fists of military proconsuls until they were ready to join the civilized world.
If we aren't ready to act in that decisive a nature against our enemies, we shouldn't be going to war. Lord knows we have current enemies deserving of similar defeats. And potential enemies who could benefit from seeing us take things through such a decisive finale.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.