Since the terrorist attack at the Matza restaurant at the gas station in front of my building.

This was the first (and hopefully last) time I witnessed a terrorist attack. It was one of the first days of our Passover vacation from school. I hardly got to leave the house that year because my mom kept me at home to make sure I was safe. That very day I finally convinced her everything would be ok, and that I have to leave the house sometimes. David and I went to the Grand Kenyon mall that day. We walked to the mall and back, so we basically passed by the place twice (like a few meters away from the restaurant). The place exploded 15 minutes after we passed the restaurant for the second time. I was already at home and David was waiting for a bus at a stop on the other side of the neighborhood. Technically, the terrorist's goal was to bomb the mall or somewhere much closer, but I guess they figured in the last few minutes that it wasn't very practical since they have high security all around the mall and they tend to double it around the holidays.

My brother was at a friend's place, who doesn't even live in Haifa, so we were glad he didn't need to deal with this. I think my dad was at home while it happened. We heard the loud boom, it sounded like three explosions in a row, before one was done the other one started. It was extremely loud (it was less than 300 meters from us), and there was no doubt we were facing a terrorist attack. We ran to the window and we couldn't see anything at first. We were in a massive cloud of smoke. After a few seconds we could see the roof of the restaurant was totally broken and some pieces that got on fire. Everything was very still. No movement, no noise for what seemed like forever until the screaming of the people from inside the place brought us to the next phase of shock. It wasn't a minute yet from what happened and I tried to call the police/ambulance/whoever for help. There wasn't any answer and I believe it was before the lines even crashed. There was no answer simply because they don't always answer... This fact on it's own is scary as hell. However, my mom started to get really paniced. She yelled and cried and jumped on me and hugged me. It was a little nervous breakdown. She kept thinking about the idea of me being there just a few minutes ago. About how I might have seen the very terrorist who caused this. I called David and he came back to my house. There was no point waiting out there for public transportation because the roads were blocked anyway (they had to stop anyone who might have helped the murderer).
For hours we just stood at the window looking at what was left of the place. We saw how they moved the injured out of there, and how some of the paramedics started treated some of the people in the place. Later we saw the medical people covering the bodies with this black plastic thing (that always reminds me of the kind of black plastic bag we use for trash) and other body parts that were all over the place I guess and transfer them to Abu-Kabir.

Fifteen people were murdered in this terrorist attack. Two of them were brothers who went to my school.



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