Israeli Mom Dies of Shrapnel Infection from 1970 School Bus Massacre

By ANAV SILVERMAN

(Tazpit News Agency) — Leah Revivo, a survivor of the 1970 Avivim school bus massacre in northern Israel, died from infection at age 52 this past week and was buried Monday morning, Dec. 30. The shrapnel had been lodged into her brain since the time of the shooting, which had mortally wounded Revivo, who was a nine-year-old child at the time. 

Nine other of her classmates from Moshav Avivm were killed in the terror attack which took place close to Kibbutz Baram, in the Upper Galilee near the Lebanese border on May 22, 1970.

Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Syrian-sponsored Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization, fired two bazooka shells at the bus, killing 12 Israeli civilians and wounding 25 others.

Despite the mortal wounds, Revivo managed to rehabilitate, marrying and raising a family of four children in Be’er Sheva in southern Israel. She chose to live in Be’er Sheva after she married, far from the bloody attack that destroyed her childhood.

Her son, Kobi, told Israel’s Maariv in a report on Monday that he and his siblings grew up with a mother who suffered from scars all over her body. “When my grandfather reached the bus to look for her, they told him that her body had been shredded to pieces. Only after several long hours, did they realize that she had been mortally wounded and she was immediately taken to Rambam hospital.”

“We didn’t think the day would come when we would lose her this way,” Kobi stated in the Maariv report.
“People think that after a terror attack, whoever wasn’t murdered continues with life and everything is well. We have to remember that those who were wounded both in body and spirit, may eventually succumb to their injuries in the future,” he added.

For the past two years, Revivo’s medical condition had deteriorated as one of the shrapnel pieces that had penetrated her brain during the attack became infected and caused her to suffer from epileptic seizures. According to Revivo’s son, the epileptic attacks grew so terrible that medication could no longer treat his mother’s worsening condition.

This past Rosh Hashana, Revivo suffered from an epilepsy attack that left her with severe brain trauma and two months ago she fell into a vegetative state, according to her son.

Revivo became the thirteen victim of the Avivim school bus massacre during the same week when 26 Palestinian terrorists were released following the American-led peace negotiations on Monday night, December 30.