“Our Children Have No Legs-and He’s Going Free?”

Tehila Cohen, 11, both of whose legs were severed in the attack on the bus in Kfar Darom, heard last night about the release of the man who allegedly perpetrated the attack in which she and her siblings were wounded. “That takes a lot of nerve, to release a murderer. Even if he didn’t kill with his own hands, its enough that he helped murder Israelis. I feel anger in my heart at the people who released him, and ask in my name and in the name of all children that he be put back in jail.”

Tehila’s parents, Noga and Ofir Cohen, whose three children were wounded severely in the terror attack on the bus in Kfar Darom, said last night: “It is inconceivable that a process called ‘the political process’ should blind the eyes of Mofaz and Sharon so much that they do unethical things like release the people responsible for the murder of Israelis and the fact that our children have no legs.”

The Cohens intended to appeal to the High Court of Justice against the release of Abu Mutlak, but said: “Before we could say Jack Robinson, he was already in Gaza. This whole process stinks more than a little. In the end, the army retracted its allegations against Abu Mutlak. On the one hand, we’re talking with the Palestinians about peace. Not even a full day has gone by and there are more terror attacks in Kfar Darom. They fire rockets and mortar shells at us, and the army can’t respond. Not even a day later, and we hear that the suspect who was arrested by the army and was charged, together with Dahlan, with responsibility for the terror attack in which our children were wounded, has gone free.”

The attack on the bus, the severe results of which shocked the country, occurred on November 20, 2000. At 7:30 a.m., an explosion shook the homes of Kfar Darom. A bus taking the settlement’s children to school was hit by a roadside bomb that had been planted by terrorists. Two passengers on the bus were killed in the explosion and nine were wounded, including five children. Among the wounded children were the Cohen siblings, Orit, Tehila and Yisrael, whose legs were severed in the attack.