The Avivim school bus bombing was a

terrorist attack Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

on an

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i 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 Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...

. Two rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) were fired at the bus. The attack was one of the first carried out by the PFLP-GC.

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

terrorists Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

, believed to have infiltrated from Lebanon, and an

ambush An ambush is a long-established military tactic in which a combatant uses an advantage of concealment or the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind moun ...

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, as were the two other adults on board. The three were killed as the bus crashed into an

embankment Embankment may refer to: Geology and geography * A levee, an artificial bank raised above the immediately surrounding land to redirect or prevent flooding by a river, lake or sea * Embankment (earthworks), a raised bank to carry a road, railway ...

as the attackers continued firing into the vehicle. The attackers were never apprehended.

Fatalities

The children, who were in first to third grade, were buried in a special plot in

Safed Safed (known in Hebrew as Tzfat; Sephardic Hebrew & Modern Hebrew: צְפַת ''Tsfat'', Ashkenazi Hebrew: ''Tzfas'', Biblical Hebrew: ''Ṣǝp̄aṯ''; ar, صفد, ''Ṣafad''), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elev ...

. A monument commemorating the victims of the attack stands in the middle of the moshav. 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.

Aftermath

Israel retaliated for the

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

by shelling four Lebanese villages, killing 20 people, injuring 40, and spurring thousands of southern Lebanon's residents to flee north. This in turn provided one of the motivations for the

Dawson's Field hijackings In September 1970, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked four airliners bound for New York City and one for London. Three aircraft were forced to land at Dawson's Field, a remote desert airstrip near Zarqa ...

of 6 September 1970. The IDF also began patrolling regularly inside southern Lebanon after the massacre.

References

{{coord, 33.0621, N, 35.4234, E, source:wikidata, display=title Mass murder in 1970 Terrorist incidents in Asia in 1970 Attacks on buses by Palestinian militant groups School killings in Israel Mass shootings in Israel Massacres in Israel Palestinian terrorism School massacres Massacres in Israel during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict Murdered Israeli children May 1970 events in Asia 1970 mass shootings in Asia 1970 murders in Israel Terrorist incidents in Israel in the 1970s Explosions in 1970 Massacres in 1970

Attack

Fatalities

Aftermath

See also

References