Baby’s Wail Emerges From Carnage

A bomb exploded. Two dozen people lay sprawled on the ground. From their midst came a baby’s wail.

Whose baby was this?

A policewoman with fear in her eyes - filmed only a few minutes after Friday’s bomb attack - cradled the baby in her arms.

The baby’s head was spotted with blood above a red-and-blue outfit, a clown for the Purim holiday.

Where was the mother? What about the father?

No one knew. Rescue workers took the baby to Ichilov Hospital.

In the next few hours, the baby became the subject of a series of news bulletins.

At 3:20 p.m., the hospital listed the baby - a 6-month-old girl - in stable condition with leg wounds.

At 4:30 p.m., still no word about the parents. Media speculated that one or both of them might be dead.

At 5 p.m., Israel Radio quoted a witness, Pini Melkeh, who said he picked up the baby from her carriage, slapped her on the back and “she started crying, so I knew she was alive.”

He said there was a woman on the ground next to the baby carriage, “lying with her face all burned.”

At 7 p.m. came the first bit of positive news. The girl’s father had arrived at the hospital. What about the mother? No one was saying. The news was that the baby girl had a father. Nothing more. The rest would wait until morning.