New footage from the camera of the bus targeted in Monday morning's terror attack revealed the dramatic moments of the shooting on Highway 55.
Three people were killed in the terror attack, and 11 others were injured.
Yosef Meir, the driver of the bus, bore witness to the terror attack. He recalled: "I saw three terrorists standing on the road, they shot at the car in front of me. I had just come with the bus, and they shot at me. I tried to go over them with the bus, but they ran aside. I continued driving, and down below there was another terror cell that opened fire at me. They fired another seven bullets, but thanks to the bus' protection, nothing happened."
He added, "When I saw the terrorists shooting point blank at the people in the private vehicle, I wanted to ram them, but they ran away. At that moment, I was thinking only of the people who were in the car - for myself, I wasn't scared. I am fine, thank G-d."
Three people were murdered in the shooting: Sergeant Elad Yaakov Winklestein, a 35-year-old police detective from Kibbutz Ein Hanatziv, is survived by his wife Tal and his sons Neve and Omer, as well as his parents, Naomi and Yossi, and his siblings Yonatan, Hadas, and Harel. Rachel Cohen and Aliza Rize, ages 70 and 73, were close friends, both from Kedumim. Cohen (73) was a school counselor and is survived by her husband and five daughters. Rize (70) was also a school counselor, and is survived by her children and family.
Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, who arrived at the scene, said: "This is a very difficult shooting attack in Samaria, with very terrible results. From here, I say to our barbaric enemies: We will never break! The nation of Israel will be victorious, and the settlements will be built even more."
Dagan also called on the government to act immediately: "If the security checkpoints had been closed and there had been inspections of everyone who entered or exited Shechem (Nablus -ed.), it may well be that this terror attack would not have happened. We demand that the government and the IDF management leave the 'conceptzia,' confiscate all of the illegal weapons, and fight the Palestinian Authority, which leads the terror. This situation is not tenable, and we demand an immediate change in policy!"
"Our response to terror is to become stronger - to strengthen the settlements and the construction in the country. We are here to win!"
