response to a suicide bombing on a city bus in Haifa that killed at least 15 passengers, reports said Thursday March 6.
Palestinian witnesses and medics claimed most of the deaths resulted when a tank shell hit people trying to remove furniture from a wood shop set ablaze during fighting between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops, the Voice of America (VOA) reported.
The raid into the Jabalya refugee camp at the Shifa hospital in Gaza city came after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new security Cabinet met late Wednesday night to discuss the Haifa suicide bombing, reporters said.
"Bus 37 was winding its way through Haifa on Wednesday, packed with high school and university students chatting about assignments or social plans," said the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), which supports Jewish people.
CELL PHONES
Some were on their cell phones, as was 13-year-old Yuval Mendelevitch, who was speaking to his father when the bus blew up and the connection was lost.
"Yuval, answer me!" Yossi Mendelevitch yelled into the phone. Receiving no answer, Yuval’s father raced to where the bus was when his son spoke his last words, "I love you, dad," the ICEJ News Service reported.
Mendelevitch encountered a devastated bus and learned that Yuval, an eighth-grader, was one of the 15 people – most of them 22-years- old or younger – killed in the blast. The blast also effected Arab Christians and Yeshua (Jesus) following Jews, news reports said.
ARAB PASTOR
One of them was Abigail Leitel, whose parents suspected their daughter was on the fated bus and called their pastor, who went to the scene. The Arab pastor, Shmuel Aweida, was the first to identify the 14-year-old’s body.
"We were looking for her at different hospitals by calling for the lists of injured," he told the ICEJ News Service. "I couldn’t sit at home anymore so I went to (the hospital). I identified her there."
Aweida, who is pastor of a mostly Jewish congregation said Abigail was his favourite in the church. "She loved Yeshua (Jesus) and wanted to serve him more than anything else," he said.
Her sister and brothers, ranging in age from 10-16, were apparently very close. The Leitels moved to Israel when Abigail, the second oldest of the five, was 7-months-old. Abigail’s father is a Baptist clergyman.
"SAFELY TO SHORE"
Her brother Joshua, told Ma’ariv newspaper that a year ago he and Abigail had a brush with death when they almost drowned on a Mediterranean beach. "But someone was watching over us and saw us safely to shore," he added.
"My sister was a creative girl who loved everyone," Joshua said. "Her first love was for humanity, and after that, nature. She always believed that God loves her and wouldn’t let anything happen to her. But in the end the pain and sadness has reached us as well."
Abigail was to be be buried on Sunday. "The Christian community in Israel is small and therefore tight knit. Aweida said people from faraway towns were visiting all day on Thursday, praying with and encouraging the family. They know where she is now," the ICEJ News Service quoted pastor Aweida as saying.
"OUR HOPE"
"And we’re amazed at how people who don’t have our hope deal with this," he added
Abigail and Yuval were part of a program, Children Teaching Children, which aims to teach tolerance and coexistence and in the coming weeks were to meet with Arab youth from a neighboring town.
A 20-year-old Hebron resident, Mahmoud Hamdan Kawasme, is believed to be the one who killed his peers and himself with an 8- kilogram (17 pound) explosives belt strapped to his waist. He left a note praising the September 11 attacks, the ICEJ News Service said. There was no claim of responsibility but some Palestinians claimed Kawasme was affiliated with Hamas.
"STATE OF WAR"
"Israel is in a state of war and the war has come to our streets, but we have to carry on, raise our heads, help the wounded and their families and the bereaved at a time when war is on the horizon," Haifa Mayor Giora Fischer told reporters.
About 55 people were reportedly wounded, many still in serious condition, in the first suicide attack in Israel in more than two months. Because of its magnitude, many believed the giant blast signalled the start of a war with Iraq.
"We thought the war had started and that a missile had fallen on the roof of our building – we started going to the sealed room," said witness Heftziba Shetreet.
ARABS AND JEWS
Arabs and Jews who get along and live side-by-side in the less contentious city of Haifa also perished together in the blast. "The driver is an Arab Christian who has been a bus driver for seven years," the ICEJ said.
Senior Palestinian leaders reportedly condemned the Haifa bombing. VOA quoted Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo as saying that such attacks "only serve to distract attention from the many Palestinian civilians killed in Israeli military operations," in which at least 50 Palestinians, including militants and eight civilians, were killed in recent weeks.
Marwan Damouni, an Israeli Arab, said he didn’t recall seeing the bomber board and doesn’t recall the blast. "I opened my eyes and I saw all the bus destroyed, people lying on the floor. I tried to get out and people gave me water and a chair. People started running to help," he said. "I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t hear anything. I opened my eyes after a minute and saw blood all over my arms."
His family and colleagues from the Egged bus company surrounded his hospital bed. "We Christians have nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian struggle," said an uncle, according to the ICEJ News Service. "We’re sitting on the fence with a white flag, watching left and right to see what happens."
