Avivim school bus massacre
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The Avivim school bus massacre was a terrorist attack on an Israeli school bus on May 8, 1970 in which 12 Israeli civilians were killed, nine of them children, and 25 were wounded. The attack took place on the road to Moshav Avivim, near Israel's border with Lebanon. Two bazooka shells were fired at the bus.[1] The attack was one of the first carried out by the PFLP-GC.[2]
Early in the morning, the bus departed from Avivim heading with its passengers to two local schools. This route had been scouted by the militants, 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 amongst 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.[4]
[edit] Victims
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 - Ester Avikezer, Haviva Biton, Chana Biton, Yehuda Ohayon, Yafa Batito, Mimon Biton, Machluf Biton, Aliza Peretz, Rami Yarkoni, Shulamit Biton, Shimon Azran and Shimon Biton - stands in the middle of the moshav.[5]
[edit] 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.[6][7] This in turn provided one of the motivations for the Dawson's Field hijackings of September 6, 1970.[7] The IDF also began patrolling regularly inside southern Lebanon after the massacre.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Moshav Avivim still stands determined
- ^ PLO strategy and politics By Aryeh Y. Yodfat, Yuval Arnon-Ohanna
- ^ As history repeats
- ^ Ma'alot, Kiryat Shmona, and Other Terrorist Targets in the 1970s
- ^ A People Remember Moshav Center
- ^ a b Righteous victims: a history of the Zionist-Arab conflict, 1881-1999 By Benny Morris
- ^ a b Understanding terrorist innovation: technology, tactics and global trends By Adam Dolnik
