Primer

TEN MORE VICTIMS

The victims of the most recent terrorist massacre outside the hareidi city
of Emanuel in the Shomron:

Moshe Mordechai Gutman, 40, from Emanuel, was buried this morning in Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem. He was the father of nine children, the oldest of whom is a 16-year-old daughter. He was wounded a year ago in another terrorist attack.

Border Guard Sgt. Yoel Bienenfeld, 35, of Tal Shachar was buried in the regional cemetery near his home, off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. He was killed when he and his three Border Guard colleagues rushed to the scene to help the wounded and the terrorists opened fire on them. Another Border Guard fighter was wounded, but the two others helped kill
the terrorist.

The three Tzorfati family members - Yaakov Tzorfati, 64, of Emanuel, and his two sons David, 38, and Chanan, 32, both of Ginot Shomron - were buried in Kfar Sava at 3 PM. They are survived by their wife/mother and two daughters/sisters.

Yisrael Sternberg, 46, of Emanuel, survived by his wife of 12 years.

Yirmiyahu Salem, 48, of Emanuel.

Esther Avraham, 42, mother of five children between the ages of 4 and 20, who moved to Emanuel only a short time ago.

Avraham Nachman Nitzani, 18, of Beitar Illit, buried in Har HaMenuchot.

Ya'ir Amar, 14, from Emanuel, son of Yemenite immigrants. He was a student at the Migdal Ohr Yeshiva in Migdal HaEmek.

The attack occurred when a public bus traveling from Bnei Brak to the Shomron community of Emanuel was bombed and fired upon from three different directions at about 6 PM. The Dan Company #189 bus was several hundred meters from the entrance to Emanuel when two roadside bombs were detonated alongside it, killing four passengers almost instantly. The driver managed to keep driving out of the line of fire, but when he neared the gate and some of the wounded were finally able to get off the bus, the three terrorists began spraying the area with automatic weapons fire. No one was able to approach the bus to help the wounded who could not alight on their own. Nearby cars, and those who escaped from them, were also shot at.

One terrorist actually stood on the road and continued firing; a car ran him down, but he kept firing until a jeep ran him over a second time and killed him. The two other terrorists escaped, but not before they fired on emergency vehicles that arrived on the scene. At least one person was killed when his car - and two others - turned over.

Some 30 wounded were taken to hospitals in Tel Aviv, Kfar Sava, and Petach Tikvah. Over 20 are still hospitalized - one in critical condition and seven listed in moderate condition. Four of the seven children of the Siton family were hurt, including one who is conscious but in critical condition. Three children are in one hospital, and a fourth is in another. Ten-year-old Aharon Cohen was saved when a bolt from one of the bombs blasted through his yarmulke - but caused only surface wounds to his head. Chief Rabbi Lau and President Moshe Katzav visited the wounded in Beilinson Hospital today. Rabbi Lau said that the latest events prove that the Oslo process was a mistake, and that "we should learn from Egypt and Jordan how to deal with hostile elements."

Israeli sources say that the three terrorists who perpetrated the massacre were included in the list of 33 wanted terrorists that Israel submitted to the PA several weeks ago.