Survivor of '70 attack won't leave war zone

AVIVIM, Israel — The scars on Shimon Biton's body, still hurting after 36 years, tell him to stay.

"I've lived here 40 years," said Biton, 44, head of the residents association at the collective farm in Avivim, on the border with Lebanon, which has become one of the main launching sites for Israeli army attacks into Lebanon. "Hezbollah hasn't pushed me out. They've tried before."

It was Palestinian guerrillas who penetrated the Israeli perimeter from Lebanon early on May 22, 1970, and used a bazooka to ambush a school bus. Biton was 7. He and his father were on the bus, which was taking children to a school in nearby Rehinia. The dead included eight children and four adults. Biton's father was killed, and Biton's injuries kept him in a hospital for six months.

The Avivim bus attack taught Biton and others in the community a lesson that holds to this day:

"That we need to stay here," said Biton. "I learned that this is the state of Israel and you need to stay here at all costs. ... It's something you don't forget."

There are usually 450 people living in Avivim. Now, there are about 50 men, looking after the thousands of chickens that provide income for many of its families. The men also are keeping guard and helping the army, which has established a position nearby from which tanks roar into battle against Hezbollah.

The women, children and elderly of Avivim were evacuated to the coastal city of Netanya.

Two Katyusha rockets, fired by Hezbollah, have hit Avivim in the past few days, causing no injuries. Lebanon is only a few yards from the perimeter of the farming community, or moshav.

Each year, on May 22, the people of Avivim gather at a memorial to commemorate and mourn those who died in the bus attack.

For Biton, "the tragedy," as it's known here, shaped his life. He keeps photographs of it in his home.

One picture shows a bus, peeled open by the two blasts of a bazooka fired. The second shows a boy on a stretcher. That's Biton.

"It was a regular day," he said. "We were going to school in a nearby moshav. On the way, we were ambushed by terrorists with a bazooka. I don't like to describe it. I was a child."

Shrapnel tore into his torso and shoulder. "Scars always hurt," he said.

At 24, Biton made a career choice some might consider surprising. He became the driver of a school bus, on the same route where the bus was attacked in 1970. He did the job for 18 years and is now head of the bus service in the local municipality.

"Because of that [the attack], I became a bus driver. It helps the treatment," he said. "I want to be strong every day, driving the same route, to take the children to school. ... I'm content."