Wednesday, March 23, 2011

23-Mar-11: We know these horrors only too well

Jerusalem's central bus station (in the background) this afternoon 
An Egged bus of the number 74 line exploded at about 3 this afternoon near the Jerusalem's central bus station and just outside the Jerusalem Conference Center (Binyanei Ha'uma) at the entrance to the city.

The New York Times report helpfully attributes the carnage to "what Israeli officials called a terrorist attack". Thank heavens we have the world's most authoritative newspaper to point out to us how easily people can get mixed up about things like this; the explosion was terror according to "Israeli officials", but less excitable observers might say it could just as easily have been some Thai worker chasing an unpaid debt.

The Jerusalem Post says one woman, aged 59, died and 39 people were injured. Of these, three were injured seriously by the force of the explosion itself; four are moderately hurt from the effects of shrapnel sadistically packed into the explosive device by the heroes who planted  it; and the remainder are in moderate to light condition. Witnesses are said to be able to identify the man who left the bomb-filled bag next to the bus stop and police are searching for him. (There was a similar bombing in Jerusalem's southern neighbourhood of Gilo two weeks ago that ripped the hand off a municipal worker, and now there is a suspicion that the bombings share a common perpetrator.) May they find him quickly.

Thursday UPDATE: It appears the murdered woman was a British national. No names released yet. AFP says a British tourist.

UPDATE FridayThis British source says the woman killed in the Binyanei Hauma bus stop bomb blast on Wednesday was a British Bible translator, Mary Jean Gardner, 59, from Orkney in Scotland, who was studying at the Hebrew University. This Scottish newspaper says she was "employed by the Wycliffe Society, which works to provide translations of the Bible to the estimated 340 million people who can’t read it in their own language".

UPDATE March 28, 2011: The post above is now translated into the French language and appears on the website of Le Mouvement pour la Paix et Contre le Terrorisme.

No comments: