Avivim school bus bombing

{{Short description|1970 terrorist attack by Palestinian militants in Israel}}

{{Infobox terrorist attack

| title = Avivim school bus bombing

| partof = the Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon

| image = Avivim school bus bombing I.jpg

| caption = Avivim school bus

| map = {{location map|Israel northeast|caption=|float=center}}

|map_caption=The attack site

| location = Near Avivim, northern Israel

| target = Israeli school bus

| date = {{start date and age|1970|5|22|df=yes}}

| coordinates = {{coord|33|03|43|N|35|25|24|E|display=inline,title}}

| time-begin =

| time-end =

| timezone =

| type = Ambush

| fatalities = 12 civilians (including 9 children)

| injuries = 25

| perp = PFLP-GC

| weapons = Rocket propelled grenades, gunfire

}}

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 were fired at the bus.{{cite news|url=http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=28775|title=Moshav Avivim still stands determined during tensions|work=The Jerusalem Post|date=2006-07-20 |accessdate=2014-12-16|first=Dan|last=Izenberg|url-status=usurped|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622020811/http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=28775|archivedate=2011-06-22}} The attack was one of the first carried out by the PFLP-GC.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qvoNAAAAQAAJ&q=avivim+pflp&pg=PA145|title=PLO Strategy and Politics|isbn=9780709929017|access-date=16 December 2014|last1=Yodfat|first1=Aryeh|last2=Arnon-Oḥanah|first2=Yuval|year=1981|publisher=Croom Helm }}

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 Palestinian 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 among those hit in the initial barrage,[http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-woisra264829490jul26,0,5754659.story As history repeats]{{dead link|date=June 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} 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|date=March 2010}}

=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.{{Cite web|title=Moshav Center|work=ezy.co.il|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721140022/http://www.ezy.co.il/memoSite_eng.asp?memorial_id=87|archivedate=2011-07-21|url=http://www.ezy.co.il/memoSite_eng.asp?memorial_id=87}}

* Ester Avikezer, 23{{cite web|url=http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=37734&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|title=אסתר אביקזר ז"לבת עישה ובנימין

|accessdate=16 December 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721141051/http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=37734&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|archivedate=21 July 2011|url-status=dead|lang=he|work=laad.btl.gov.il|trans-title=Esther Avikzar, daughter of Aisha and Benjamin}}

Yehuda Ohayon, 10{{cite web|url=http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=37736&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|title=יהודה אוחיון ז"לבן סוליקה ויעיש|access-date=16 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721141219/http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=37736&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|archive-date=21 July 2011|url-status=dead|lang=he|trans-title=Yehuda Ohayon, Z"lavan, Solika and Yaish|work=laad.btl.gov.il}}
Yafa Batito, 8{{cite web|url=http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=37733&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|title=יפה בטיטו ז"לבת סימי ודניאל

|accessdate=16 December 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721141231/http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=37733&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|archivedate=21 July 2011|url-status=dead|lang=he|work=laad.btl.gov.il|trans-title=In memory of Tito Zalvat}}

Mimon Biton, 7{{cite web|url=http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=37730&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|title=אזרחים חללי פעולות איבה – חיפוש לפי שם, אירוע או מקום מגורים – מימון ביטון ז"ל|access-date=16 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721141244/http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=37730&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|archive-date=21 July 2011|url-status=dead}}
Haviva Biton, 7{{cite web|url=http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=35220&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|title=אזרחים חללי פעולות איבה – חיפוש לפי שם, אירוע או מקום מגורים – חביבה ביטון ז"ל|access-date=16 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721141305/http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=35220&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|archive-date=21 July 2011|url-status=dead}}
Hanna Biton, 8{{cite web|url=http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=35299&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|title=אזרחים חללי פעולות איבה – חיפוש לפי שם, אירוע או מקום מגורים – חנה ביטון ז"ל|access-date=16 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721141319/http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=35299&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|archive-date=21 July 2011|url-status=dead}}

Shimon Biton, 9{{cite web|url=http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=35320&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|title=אזרחים חללי פעולות איבה – חיפוש לפי שם, אירוע או מקום מגורים – שמעון ביטון ז"ל|access-date=16 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721142213/http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=35320&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|archive-date=21 July 2011|url-status=dead}}
Shulamit Biton, 9{{cite web|url=http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=35225&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|title=אזרחים חללי פעולות איבה – חיפוש לפי שם, אירוע או מקום מגורים – שולמית ביטון ז"ל|access-date=16 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721142854/http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=35225&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|archive-date=21 July 2011|url-status=dead}}
Makhlouf Biton, 28{{cite web|url=http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=37732&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|title=אזרחים חללי פעולות איבה – חיפוש לפי שם, אירוע או מקום מגורים – מכלוף ביטון ז"ל|access-date=16 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721142909/http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=37732&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|archive-date=21 July 2011|url-status=dead}}
Aliza Peretz, 14{{cite web|url=http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=37731&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|title=אזרחים חללי פעולות איבה – חיפוש לפי שם, אירוע או מקום מגורים – עליזה פרץ ז"ל|access-date=16 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721142931/http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=37731&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|archive-date=21 July 2011|url-status=dead}}
Rami Yarkoni, 29{{cite web|url=http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=35219&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|title=אזרחים חללי פעולות איבה – חיפוש לפי שם, אירוע או מקום מגורים – רמי ירקוני גרינר ז"ל|access-date=16 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721142945/http://laad.btl.gov.il/show_item.asp?itemId=35219&levelId=28553&itemType=10&template=3|archive-date=21 July 2011|url-status=dead}}
Shimon Azran, 35{{cite web|url=http://www.izkor.gov.il/izkor82.asp?t=92606|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120805155834/http://www.izkor.gov.il/izkor82.asp?t=92606|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 August 2012|title=נזכור את כולם|access-date=16 December 2014}}

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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.algemeiner.com/2014/01/02/israeli-mom-dies-of-shrapnel-infection-from-1970-school-bus-massacre|title = Israeli Mom Dies of Shrapnel Infection from 1970 School Bus Massacre}}

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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jGtVsBne7PgC&q=avivim&pg=PA373|title=Righteous Victims|isbn=9780307788054|access-date=16 December 2014|last1=Morris|first1=Benny|date=25 May 2011|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CkOJ-l1NPhAC&q=avivim+pflp&pg=PT95|title=Understanding Terrorist Innovation|isbn=9780415423519|access-date=16 December 2014|last1=Dolnik|first1=Adam|year=2007|publisher=Routledge }} This in turn provided one of the claimed motivations for the Dawson's Field hijackings of 6 September 1970. The IDF also began patrolling regularly inside southern Lebanon after the massacre.