The Hitchhiker

Bad vibes from the back seat:

An Israeli who was driving in the area, Yossi Voltinksy, offered Siksek a lift as he walked towards the city, a resort on the Red Sea, dressed in heavy clothing despite the heat.

"As soon as I looked at him in the rear-view mirror I saw something was wrong," said Mr Voltinksy, an auditor in Eilat hotels and a reserve lieutenant colonel.

"He wore a windbreaker zipped to the neck, with a big backpack strapped on. He kept one hand in his pocket and his eyes darted. I asked him where he was headed, but he didn't answer. He just motioned for me to keep going. I realised at this point that I was carrying a hostile person, a terrorist or a robber."

Mr Voltinksy released his seatbelt in order to be able to move and saw his passenger tensing. Instead of heading towards the heart of the city, Mr Voltinksy turned on to a bypass road.

"I didn't want to go to a checkpoint because I knew that as soon as he saw soldiers he would blow up."

Mr Voltinksy said he thought of flipping the car over but his passenger suddenly signalled for him to stop. They were on the outskirts of the city. Mr Voltinksy said he considered the possibility of running him over as he walked away but didn't try. "There was a 1 per cent chance that he was innocent, maybe a crazy. How would I be able to live with that?"

Instead, Mr Voltinksy telephoned police. Within minutes, he could hear the approaching sirens of patrol cars. Siksek, who was almost 1km from where he was dropped off, could hear them too. He entered a nearby bakery whose two owners and their one employee were making bread for the city's hotels. All three were killed, together with the bomber, in the ensuing explosion.