israelfacts:

Palestinians mourn death of ten bus crash children

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has declared three days of mourning for the ten Palestinian children killed when a school bus collided with a truck treacherous mountain road near Ramallah in the West Bank on Thursday.

The bus was carrying children and their teachers from a kindergarten in Shuafat refugee camp on an expedition to a park near Ramallah when it was struck head on by a truck travelling in the opposite direction and forced off the road.

In a statement published by official Palestinian agency Wafa, Mr Abbas requested that Palestinian flags at home and abroad be lowered to half-mast.

“This is a national catastrophe, a tragic accident and painful for our people and the families of these martyrs,” he said.

Both Palestinian and Israeli emergency teams arrived at the scene close to Hizme checkpoint separating Jerusalem from the West Bank and pronounced three children dead on site. At least 30 more were injured in the disaster.

“This is a very serious accident. The place looks like a battle field,” one doctor told Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper.

Palestinian and Israeli emergency services have launched a joint investigation into the tragedy.

“The driver of the truck appears to have lost control and hit the front of the school bus,” said Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld several hours after the crash.

“Unfortunately the bus then exploded in flames which is why everyone on board has suffered serious to moderate injuries. So far eight children have been confirmed dead and 30 taken to hospitals in Ramallah and Jerusalem.”

Three five-year-old children are being treated at the Hadassah University Hospital in Ein Kerem with burns to 75 per cent of their bodies.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, broke from an official visit to Cyprus to express his sorrow at the loss of life and offer the Palestinian Authority any assistance it might need to respond to the tragedy. But the gleeful reaction of several Israelis on Twitter has provoked disgust and outrage on social media sites.

One tweet posted by Ajali Cali read, “Great, less terrorists” while another tweeter named Itai Viltzig said: “Thank God [these are] Palestinians. I hope every day there is a bus like this [that crashes].”

Roads open to Palestinian drivers in the occupied West Bank are notoriously dangerous. In 2007 there were 3776 reported crashes on Palestinian roads, 4 per cent of which resulted in fatalities. In May last year, a collision between a private Palestinian vehicle and a tourist bus left four dead and several injured.

(Photos: Getty Images / AP)

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