Israel Matzav

As bad as it was, it could have been a lot worse

As bad as Thursday's 'Palestinian' terror attack on a school bus in the Gaza envelope was, it could have ended a lot worse.

Tom was among several dozen children lucky enough to be dropped off before an anti-tank missile hit their yellow school bus, which was by then all but empty save for the driver and a 16-year-old boy.

The two victims were flown by helicopter to Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba for treatment.

Doron Katz told The Jerusalem Post she realizes the fate of her child hung on such small details as how long the bus stood in traffic, or the amount of time it took the children to board.

“If the trip had taken longer, if they had stopped along the way, it could have all ended differently; she could have died,” Doron- Katz said.

At the time of the attack, Doron- Katz was in her car with two of her children, ages 10 and 11, on her way home from a doctor’s appointment in Ashkelon. Her one-year-old was in the kibbutz nursery.

Tom called her from the kibbutz to say that she had heard a large explosion that scared her.

Neither of them immediately understood that the target was the bus that Tom had just been on.

“Don’t worry, we will be home any moment,” Doron-Katz told her daughter.

But as Doron-Katz got close to the kibbutz, soldiers stopped her car and explained that the area around her home was now a closed military zone.

She stood there with other residents, whose cars formed a line on the road, and journalists who wanted to get to the scene.

Speaking with the waiting crowd, she pieced together the events of the afternoon.

Wanting to be with Tom and her baby, she called a friend who lived nearby and asked her to come to the intersection to pick up her 10- and 11-year-olds. Then she moved her car to the side of the road and parked.

Doron-Katz said she then hitched a ride to the kibbutz on a military jeep.

Do we leave our children's security to fate - God forbid? To the amount of time a bus stands in traffic and to the amount of time it takes children to board and disembark from a bus?

How many of you remember the 'Palestinian' terror attack on a school bus near Kfar Darom in 2000? That bus was armored (as the bus in Thursday's incident was supposed to have been), but an armored bus doesn't stand up to anti-tank missiles or mortar fire. In that attack, in which a school bus was hit with a 122mm mortar shell, two people were murdered and four adults - including three from one family - were seriously wounded. The three children from the Cohen family in Kfar Darom all lost limbs in that incident. Those responsible for that attack - Mohamed Dahlan and his deputy Rashid Abu Shbak - still roam free today. Because Dahlan is someone the US considers 'reliable' Israel has never targeted him for assassination, despite the fact that he is also responsible for the murder of three American consular officers in 2003. Is it any wonder that other 'Palestinians' are willing to try the same thing again?

The IDF struck back on Thursday night, which left Hamas crying for a cease fire. But Hamas has only itself to blame: One of its terror groups took responsibility for Thursday's attack.

Earlier Thursday, the Hamas military wing, the Izzadin Kassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for firing a Kornet anti-tank missile at a children's schoolbus near Kibbutz Saad in the Sha'ar Hanegev regional council, which left a 16-year-old in critical condition and the driver in light condition.

The attack was "the first response to the continuing crimes of the occupation," a Hamas statement said.

In response to the attack, the IDF spokesperson said that the air force had struck nine targets in the Gaza Strip and that artillery forces had struck the area from where the anti-tank missile was fired.

Five Palestinians were killed and 33 injured in the strikes, Palestinian medical sources reported.

Speaking at the IDF's Southern Command earlier Thursday night, Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke about the school bus attack and called it a "very serious event that hit deep into Israeli territory from deep within the Gaza Strip. That is something that we cannot accept," he added.

Commenting on IDF, IAF and artillery strikes on Gaza, the defense minister said: "The actions being taken right now are a response to [the attack] and they will continue as long as necessary in order to make clear that things like this cannot continue."

The responses by the IDF are both purposeful and effective, Barak said, adding that, "We see Hamas as responsible for everything originating in Gaza, and we expect that Hamas will understand what is allowed, and of course, what is forbidden."

When is the next Hamas police academy graduation? That would present a couple of hundred good targets.

Labels: Gaza, Hamas, Izzadin Kassam Brigades, Palestinian terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:52 AM