For those old enough to remember the iconic photo was one of those moments captured in history, the bloody terrorist attack in Maalot, Israel in 1974 that left 25 dead, including 22 children.

Members of the IDF’s Sayeret Matkal unit visited the Netiv Meir School in Maalot a number of days ago, forty years after the infamous attack. Family members of the fighters who tried to rescue the teachers and students from the Arab terrorists accompanied them in the hope of hearing of the pain they carry with them for so many decades. Candles were lit as the former combatants stood silent as for the former elite unit members; they failed in their mission as so many lives were lost. They reflected back on that fateful day. “We told them they saved so many and they were our heroes” one survivor said, but for many of the former elite soldiers the pain has been with them since that day.

56-year-old Tami Ben-Chamu explains that when she hears a megaphone it sends a chill down her spine, reminding her of the voice of her terrorist captors forty years earlier. Shoshi Yifrach recalled how she was awakened to shouts “terrorists! terrorists!” She recalled the smoke and the gunfire, the sound of bullets whizzing by.

Rachel Lagziel was a ninth grader when the attack occurred. She was handed the list of the terrorists the DFLP murderers wanted released by Israel. She was sent to present the list to Moshe Dayan. Her sister Shosh, an 11th grader, remained behind. She jumped from a window and was seriously injured in her abdomen, hand and foot. Shosh was among those who came to the event to thank the soldiers for saving those who survived.

The Maalot massacre occurred in May 1974 and involved a two-day hostage-taking of 115 people which ended in the deaths of over 25 hostages. It began when three armed members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) entered Israel from Lebanon. Soon afterwards they attacked a van, killing two Israeli Arab women while injuring a third and entered an apartment building in the town of Maalot, where they killed a couple and their four-year-old son.

From there, they headed for the Netiv Meir Elementary School where they took more than 115 people (including 105 children) hostage on 15 May 1974, in Maalot. Most of the hostages were teenagers from a high school in Safadon a Gadna field trip spending the night in Maalot. The hostage-takers soon issued demands for the release of 23 Palestinian militants from Israeli prisons, or else they would kill the students.

On the second day of the standoff the elite IDF force stormed the building. During the takeover, the terrorists killed children with grenades and automatic weapons. Ultimately, 25 hostages, including 22 children, were killed and 68 more were injured.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)