An aerial view of the aftermath of a Tel Aviv bus bombing. Photo: Maayan Uliel / Tazpit News Agency.

Leah Revivo, a survivor of the 1970 Avivim school bus massacre in northern Israel, died from a shrapnel infection at age 52 this past week. The shrapnel had been lodged in her brain since the time of the shooting, when she was nine years old. Nine other of Revivo’s classmates from Moshav Avivm were killed in the terror attack that took place close to Kibbutz Baram, in the Upper Galilee near the Lebanese border, on May 22, 1970.

Palestinian terrorists, belonging to the Syrian-sponsored Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization, fired two bazooka shells at the bus, killing 12 Israeli civilians and wounding 25 others.

Despite receiving mortal wounds, Revivo managed to rehabilitate, marry, and raise a family of four children. She chose to live in Be’er Sheva after she married, far from the bloody attack that destroyed her childhood.

Her son, Kobi, told Israel’s Maariv that he and his siblings grew up with a mother who suffered from scars all over her body. “When my grandfather reached the bus to look for her, they told him that her body had been shredded to pieces. Only after several long hours, did they realize that she had been mortally wounded and she was immediately taken to Rambam hospital.”

“We didn’t think the day would come when we would lose her this way,” Kobi stated in the Maariv report.

“People think that after a terror attack, whoever wasn’t murdered continues with life and everything is well. We have to remember that those who were wounded both in body and spirit, may eventually succumb to their injuries in the future,” he added.

For the past two years, Revivo’s medical condition had deteriorated as one of the shrapnel pieces that had penetrated her brain during the attack became infected and caused her to suffer from epileptic seizures. According to Revivo’s son, the epileptic attacks grew so terrible that medication could no longer treat his mother’s worsening condition.

This past Rosh Hashana, Leah suffered from an epilepsy attack that left her with severe brain trauma and two months ago she fell into a vegetative state, explained the son.

Revivo became the thirteenth victim of the Avivim school bus massacre during the week when 26 Palestinian terrorists were released following the American-led peace negotiations.  “Our mother’s story points to why a terrorist who has been imprisoned 20 to 30 years can still celebrate the lives he took from others years later. We cannot allow terrorists to be freed,” stated her son.

Her family and friends remember Leah Revivo for her encouraging spirit in the face of tragedy as well as her love for the land of Israel, Torah, and kindness.