1 killed, 18 injured, including South Florida woman in Jerusalem attack
MIAMI - Two separate explosions at bus stops outside of Jerusalem on Wednesday injured at least 18 people and killed a teenage boy.
A young woman from South Florida was among those hurt but has since been released from the hospital.
Naomi Pilichowski,18, is doing her national service in Israel, helping underprivileged children.
Her father, Uri Pilichowski, spoke with CBS 4. He explained that, each day, Naomi takes a 45-minute bus ride from where she lives in Jerusalem to the city of Beit Shemesh for her work.
Pilichowski described the ordeal:
"She saw the bomb go off," he said. "She saw the smoke rise in the air. She saw everything go flying in the air. She said it was almost in slow motion that she saw everything happening."
Naomi was taken to the hospital with a shrapnel wound to her arm.
"The terrorists packed the bombs with nails," Pilichowski said. "So when the bomb goes off, nails go flying everywhere, and one grazed her arm."
The family of eight has dual citizenship in the United States and Israel.
Before moving to Israel, they lived in Boca Raton.
Congressman-elect Jared Moskowtiz represents that district. He extended well-wishes to Naomi and spoke out against the attacks.
"We have to condemn these targeted, terrorist attacks on civilians in the most serious way," he said. "These are ridiculous, heinous crimes that are being committed against civilians of Israel, so we must stand with our ally."
When Naomi was released, Pilichowski said they all went out to dinner as a family and expressed gratitude that they could be together.
"We're in Israel, but we are still conscious of American holidays. We talked about how Thanksgiving is coming up and how much we have to be thankful for to God, as a family, for not having a tragedy tonight," Pilichowski said. "Every year we are going to mark the calendar on this date for what we have to be grateful for."
A spokesman for the Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the Jerusalem explosions but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
The boy killed was 15-year-old Aryeh Shechopek, a student who also held Canadian citizenship.
