Jerusalem bus bombing ends relative quiet on terror front

The smoke billowing from a burning bus. The sirens of the first responders. The smell of explosives. All of those came back to haunt Jerusalem on Monday when a bomb detonated on Egged Bus 12 as it made its way from the Talpiot neighborhood to the city center. Twenty-one people were injured in the blast, which shattered what had been relative silence on Israel’s terrorism front during the March and April.

As of Tuesday, two of the wounded individuals were in serious condition, another five were in moderate condition, and the others were described as lightly hurt. Two children, ages 10 and 13, were among the wounded. 

According to the Israeli security establishment, there were 171 “substantial” terror attacks in the country in August 2015, rising to 223 that September and 620 in October. Then the monthly number of attacks began decreasing, from 326 in November to 246 in December, 169 in January, 154 in February, 20 in March, and only three during the first week of April. 

But Monday’s bus bombing provided a rude awakening. The blast took place at 5:50 pm on Moshe Baram Street, a major artery in southern Jerusalem. The street was packed with cars.

“I got on the bus with my daughter; we heard a loud explosion and the entire bus was filled with smoke,” said Rachel Dadon, who sustained minor wounds. “The glass windows shattered. I looked for my daughter and I saw her burnt. I pray that she makes it through.” Dadon’s daughter, 15-year-old Eden, was rushed to the intensive care unit in a city hospital.

The bus driver, Moshe Levi, told Israel Hayom that there was nothing out of the ordinary in the minutes before the explosion. 

“Everything was fine,” he said. “I was in a traffic jam on Moshe Baram Street and then suddenly a large explosion rocked the back of the bus. I opened the doors and shouted at everyone to run away.”