At least one passenger was lightly injured Sunday night by stones thrown at a bus traveling from Beersheba to Meitar, a small local council north-east of Beersheba, News Online reported. The bus, belonging to the Metropoline company, was attacked on Route 60, near the Bedouin village of Umm Batin, 12 km northeast of Beersheba. The attackers threw the stones at the bus and fled under the cover of night.
Many bus windows were shattered, and the terrified driver continued driving in the dark, stopping only a few minutes later. A young man was lightly injured in his hand and was treated.
The bus driver told the passengers: “It has become routine on the roads here in the Negev, it’s just frightening. The roads are dark and sometimes you feel really helpless.”
A passenger on the bus told News Online: “We drove home and suddenly there was a loud noise of shattered glass and stones inside the bus, it was really scary and it felt like a terrorist attack. Luckily it ended with only one wounded passenger, but it could have easily ended in a catastrophe.”
Pini Badash, head of the Omer Local Council, said in response to the incident: “It’s time for everyone to wake up! Buses are being stoned and only when someone gets hurt do we suddenly care. It’s time for the police to wake up. We demand a police presence on the roads and severe punishment by the courts to create a deterrence.”
“A stone is like a bullet – it kills,” Badash said.
Police say efforts to identify and locate the suspects in the attack continue.