'People were burned alive on my bus'
The bus driver who was rammed by Palestinian suicide bombers has spoken about the horrific scenes as his packed vehicle burst into flames.
It was the deadliest attack in the last three months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
“I cannot forget what I saw – people were burned alive inside my bus,” said driver Haim Avraham, who escaped with light wounds.
“The terrorist drove straight into my fuel tank,” he said. “The bus was thrust into the air and I was thrown off my seat by the blast.
“I got out of the bus as quickly as I could through the front door, together with two or three elderly passengers. I helped drag some wounded people as far away from the bus as possible.
“Then I heard bullets and thought that more terrorists were firing at us. Once I realised that ammunition was exploding inside the bus, and that I was not seriously wounded, I reboarded twice to help wounded passengers get out.
“One or two people helped me, but most onlookers just stood frozen. I think they were scared of the exploding bullets.”
Avraham, 49, has been a bus driver for 21 years. “Attacks have happened to three friends, and now it’s my turn,” he told The Jerusalem Post, “but that is my job.”
Travelling salesman Asi Dayan, 30, was driving to the left of the bus as the militants’ jeep rammed it from behind.
“I saw it all in front of my eyes, from a distance of about 20 metres,” he said. “My windscreen shattered and my car burst into flames. I walked away, in shock, until somebody grabbed me and told me to sit down. I was covered in blood.”
In the Hillel Yaffe Hospital in nearby Hadera, 19-year-old Yiftah Mental said he was just stepping onto the bus when the blast blew him off his feet.
“Then I saw my mother running toward me, shouting ‘Yiftah, Yiftah.’ She was in greater shock than me. I took her aside, because she shouldn’t see such things – people were screaming, trying to jump out of the bus’s windows as it burned. All around us was hysteria.”
A hospital spokeswoman said: “Unfortunately, the hospital is used to dealing with such incidents, and we were ready for both the wounded and trauma victims.”
