Egypt: Remembering Bahr El-Baqar Incident

Forty one years ago, on April 8, 1970, and during the War of Attrition, the Israeli Air Force raided a primary school in the Egyptian village of Bahr el-Baqar, south of Port Said, in the eastern province of Sharqia. Bahr El-Baqar School – a three-classroom school that housed 150 students – was destroyed, about 30 of its students died, over 50 were severely wounded, and many were left with disabilities. And after all those years, Egyptians still remember the massacre.

Zeinobia tweeted a post she wrote a year ago about the massacre.

From 40 years ago, the students of a very small school made of 3 classrooms in a tiny village in Northern Delta had not known that they would not have a recess on that day or even finish the 2nd class, 150 students went on that day from 40 years ago and they did not know that 30 of them would be killed while the rest would be injured. 150 students went to their small classes on that morning of 8th April 1970 without knowing that they would be immortalized along with with their school in the history of this nation as a deep sad wound called: Bahr El-Baqar Massacre.
@waelragheb: لن انسى و لم انسى ما حدث في بحر البقر
@waelragheb: I'll never forget, and I've never forgot what happened in Bahr El-Baqar.
@Wild_atHeart: 41 years ago, and we will never forget #Israel's #massacre against 80 of our children. #Egypt #BahrElBaqar

Users on Twitter shared videos of television documentaries and songs made about the massacre which Ahmed Shalaby quoted and Monica Ibrahim commented on.

@AhmedShalaby: الدرس انتهى لموا الكراريس..بالدم اللى على ورقهم سال! -بحر البقر
@AhmedShalaby: The class is over, collect your copybooks … with the blood spilt on their pages! Bahr El-Baqar.
@MoniicaNag: Can't stop tearing as I watch #Ba7rElbaqar videos :(

Some others decided to compare the Bahr El-Baqar incident to the ongoing air strikes on Gaza. Radwa El-Shami wrote the following note at the end of her most recent blog post.

Today, April 7, Israel brutally shells Gaza in the framework of the Operation “Scorching Summer”, with causalities and injuries. Tomorrow, April 8, is the 41th anniversary of Bahr El-Baqar massacre.

And finally Sharif added:

@Sheryos: Is #Israel really that stupid, that it decides to remind us of #Ba7rElbaqar's massacre by repeating it in #Gaza? Murderers!
@Sheryos: #Israel, if you never forgot a single Nazi crime against you, we'll never forget your record of crimes against Arabs. #Ba7rElbaqar #Ghaza

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