On Wednesday, the day before yesterday, I ate a late lunch with two friends at a vegetarian restaurant, shaded by a green sunumbrella, on Ben-Yehuda Street, the cafe-lined pedestrian mall in the very centre of Jerusalem. Yesterday afternoon, just a few minutes after three, suicide bombers had detonated their explosives in that same section of the street. I went back to the restaurant.
The sun umbrella under which I had eaten barely 24 hours earlier was still there - or rather its white metal frame was. But its green cloth had been torn away by the force of the blasts, as had the huge plate-glass window of the restaurant itself, of the shops all along that section of the street, and of offices and homes three, four and five stories above us.
The white frame was covered in blood; larger and smaller bits of human flesh were hanging from it, like fresh steaks and scraps in a deranged butcher's display. Other sections of people's bodies were scattered nearby.
Rescue workers were inside the restaurant, the cafe opposite, the T-shirt shop a little higher up the hill, evacuating the injured, covering the dead in white plastic sheeting. "Guy, there's a foot here," one called out to a colleague as I walked past.
The smashed glass cracked underfoot; an elegant white frock was stained with blood in a glassless dress shop window; the trilbies and fedoras at Fuerster's hat shop had spilled out onto the pavement.
My office is just around the corner from Ben-Yehuda Street, so I'd heard the sounds of the blasts clearly. Crack, brief pause, crack, brief pause, crack. Three bangs, I figured, more likely to be three planes smashing the sound barrier than another attack. After all, until yesterday, the suicide bombers had acted alone or in pairs, not in trios. But then a colleague rushed in with the truth, and the ambulance wails grew louder.
At the bottom of Ben-Yehuda, I saw a middle-aged man with black hair walking away quietly by himself, pouring blood from a gaping hole below the right knee. Then I saw a younger man, holding paper napkins to his head to staunch trickles of blood.
Another man in his 20s ran by, dressed in plain clothes rather than police or army uniform but carrying his pistol drawn as though in hot pursuit of someone or other. Now, as I neared "my" restaurant, the medics were stretchering the injured away - men and women stripped near naked after preliminary treatment - and the bodies were being covered over.
Back in the office, colleagues were frantically telephoning husbands, wives, parents and children - offering reassurance, and seeking reassurance than none of their loved ones had been harmed.
Hamas gunmen have sprayed automatic fire into the restaurants which line the street beneath the office, the city's main fruit and vegetable market has been blown up, and now three bombers have struck on the nearby outdoor pedestrian mall. A friend of mine last night said dryly: "It's getting a little too close for comfort."
David Horovitz is the managing editor of the Jerusalem Report
Agencies add:
Lebanese army troops fired anti-aircraft weapons at Israeli helicopters attempting to land in south Lebanon late last night, Lebanese security sources said. One said there was "definitely an attempted Israeli commando landing which was confronted by the Lebanese army. I have no more information."
In Beirut, the pro-Iranian Hizbullah said its guerrillas clashed with an Israeli commando force near Nsariyeh village, 20km south of Sidon, while Israeli helicopters launched an air raid against a Lebanese army position which directed anti-aircraft fire at the aircraft.
Security officials said Israeli helicopters had bombarded the area at least four times.
Meanwhile the mayor of Jerusalem, Mr Ehud Olmert, accused the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, of "inspiring" yesterday's triple suicide attack in the divided city and said the Middle East peace process could not continue as before.
"Arafat is the inspiration and orchestrator of all these terrorist actions," he said, adding that he was cutting short his visit to Moscow - the first by a Jerusalem mayor to the Russian capital.
Mr Arafat earlier condemned the bombing, calling it an attack on Israelis, Palestinians and the Middle East peace process. He did not say whether he would meet Israeli demands to crack down on Muslim militants who claimed responsibility for the attack. Mr Arafat began "national unity" talks with Muslim militants in Gaza last month, enraging Israel.
Mr Olmert, who said he had just spoken by telephone with the Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the peace process, which the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, hopes to push forward with a visit to Israel next week, could not go on as it was. "The peace process will not continue in the same pattern as it has taken place up until now, that's for sure," he said. Asked how Israel and the Palestinians could break the deadlock, Mr Olmert said: "Stop the killing." - (Reuter)