Avivim school bus bombing

33°03′43″N 35°25′24″E / 33.06194°N 35.42333°E / 33.06194; 35.42333Date22 May 1970; 54 years ago (1970-05-22)TargetIsraeli school busAmbushWeaponsRocket propelled grenades, gunfireDeaths12 civilians (including 9 children)Injured25PerpetratorPFLP-GC^[1]

The Avivim school bus bombing was a terrorist attack on an Israeli school bus on 22 May 1970, in which 12 civilians were killed, nine of them children, and 25 were wounded, one of whom died of a wound sustained in the attack 44 years later. The attack took place on the road to Moshav Avivim, near Israel's border with Lebanon. Two rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) were fired at the bus.^[2] The attack was one of the first carried out by the PFLP-GC.^[1]

Attack

Early in the morning, the bus departed from Avivim heading with its passengers to two local schools. This route had been scouted by the terrorists, believed to have infiltrated from Lebanon, and an ambush was set up. As the bus passed by, ten minutes after leaving Avivim, it was attacked by heavy gunfire from both sides of the road. The driver was among those hit in the initial barrage,^[3] as were the two other adults on board. The three were killed as the bus crashed into an embankment as the attackers continued firing into the vehicle.

The attackers were never apprehended.^{[citation needed]}

Fatalities

The children, who were in first to third grade, were buried in a special plot in Safed. A monument commemorating the victims of the attack stands in the middle of the moshav.^[4]

Ester Avikezer, 23[5] Yehuda Ohayon, 10[6] Yafa Batito, 8[7] Mimon Biton, 7[8] Haviva Biton, 7[9] Hanna Biton, 8[10]

Shimon Biton, 9[11] Shulamit Biton, 9[12] Makhlouf Biton, 28[13] Aliza Peretz, 14[14] Rami Yarkoni, 29[15] Shimon Azran, 35[16]

Leah Revivo, who survived the attack at age nine, died in 2014 at age 52 from an infection brought on by a piece of shrapnel lodged in her brain as a result of the attack.^[17]

Aftermath

Israel retaliated for the massacre by shelling four Lebanese villages, killing 20 people, injuring 40, and spurring thousands of southern Lebanon's residents to flee north.^[18][19] This in turn provided one of the claimed motivations for the Dawson's Field hijackings of 6 September 1970.^[19] The IDF also began patrolling regularly inside southern Lebanon after the massacre.^[18]

See also

• List of massacres in Israel

References