Doctors Fighting to Save Lives of Jerusalem Bus Bomb Blast Victims

Doctors are fighting to save the lives of victims of yesterday’s bomb blast which destroyed a crowded Jerusalem bus killing four persons and injuring 46.

The dead, identified today, are Nurit Pollack, 14; Eti Adi, 11, Yehuda Kaplan, 77; and Lasslo B. Danisky, 50, all of Jerusalem.

Among the injured, 28 are still undergoing treatment at the Shaare Zedek Hospital and Hadassah Hospital’s Ein Kerem facility, the hospitals nearest the scene of the explosion. Ten are reported to be badly hurt and one is listed in critical condition.

According to hospital sources, the most serious problems are burns, multiple cuts, eye injuries and respiratory damage. Nearly all of the victims suffered hearing problems and many have punctured eardrums due to the intensity of the blast. The bus was reduced to a charred skeleton.

Police, investigating the outrage, rounded up suspects for questioning yesterday. All but four have been released. The Palestine Liberation Organization has claimed credit for the carnage. The claims have come from both the faction supporting PLO chief Yasir Arafat and PLO dissidents who have been battling the Arafat loyalists in northern Lebanon.

‘OUR HAND WILL REACH THE MURDERERS’

Premier Yitzhak Shamir lashed out at the PLO today and vowed that the deaths and injuries would be avenged. Winding up a political debate in the Knesset, Shamir declared: “Our hand will reach the murderers and we shall strike them until this wickedness disappears from the face of the earth.” He said it was regrettable that some still call Arafat a “moderate,” adding that Israel was under no illusions and knows well that its enemies are filled with hatred and lust for murder.

The bus bombing shocked the country because of the large number of victims and the sight of mangled bodies and also because Jerusalem has been relatively free of terrorist acts in recent years. Yesterday’s was the worst since 1979 in terms of deaths and injuries.

Mayor Teddy Kollek warned today that this latest incident must not lead to a deterioration in relations between Jews and Arabs in the city. He recalled, on a Voice of Israel Radio interview, that there have been many outrages of this kind over the years and there was no way to prevent them. But he ruled out any restrictions on the freedom of movement of Arabs.

“The moment you limit the movement of Arabs on buses it will become more dangerous,” Kollek said. “Would you ask everybody who boards a bus whether he is an Arab or not? Can you check it? It’s an impossibility. ” The Mayor also warned against acts of reprisal on local Arabs, especially because many such terrorist attacks in the past were the work of outsiders.

The local media noted that there was complacency among the populace which is not as alert as it once was to suspicious-looking objects on buses and in the streets. The feeling has been that the PLO has not recovered from the blows it sustained in the Lebanon war and is too preoccupied with internal strife to engage in terrorist activities inside Israel.

Davar observed today that the bus bombing signalled that the terrorist organizations have recuperated somewhat since the destruction of their military infrastructure in Lebanon last year. Maariv said it was proof that the “moderate” wing of the PLO is as blood-thirsty as ever.

The Jerusalem Post suggested that Arafat may have reverted to a harder line to pay the political debt he owes to such extremist leaders as George Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh who have backed him in his present struggle though they still criticize his stress on diplomacy.

Meanwhile, a new curfew was clamped on downtown Nablus today after a grenade was thrown at an Israeli border patrol. The grenade did not explode. A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a military vehicle at the Askar refugee camp near Nablus last night. There were no casualties or damage.