ISRAEL: Daybreak revealed bloodstains on trees near the explosion. Grim and red-eyed from the night before, rabbis gently pruned the boughs and collected them in burial bags.
For ultra-Orthodox forensic volunteers hardened by dozens of Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel, Tuesday's attack hit home - killing 18 people on a packed bus returning families from prayer at the sacred Western Wall in the Old City.
"The casualties were extreme - what we refer to as 'severely killed'," volunteer Mr Yisrael Eckstein (28), said yesterday. By midday, only half of the mutilated bodies had been identified. Police said five were those of young children.
"I thought twice about going to synagogue this morning because I did not want to find out what funeral I would have to go to," Mr Jonathan Rosenblum, director of the Jewish religious think-tank, Am Ehad, said.
Hamas, an Islamic group sworn to Israel's destruction and spearheading a 34-month-old Palestinian independence uprising, claimed responsibility for the attack. Police said the bomber may have disguised himself as a Jew to board the bus unnoticed.
Ultra-Orthodox make up 10 per cent of Israel's population, three times that in Jerusalem. They tend to identify with right-wing politics but shun the trappings of modernity. Most of their men are exempt from mandatory military service.
The community has been exposed to violence, both in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and in Jerusalem, where their homes are close to the Arab eastern half of the holy city. The Beit Israel neighbourhood hit on Tuesday suffered a similar attack in March 2002, when a bomber blew himself up outside a synagogue, killing nine people. Ultra-Orthodox Jews tend to have large families and limited means, making them dependent on public transport and thus vulnerable to Palestinian militants who often attack buses.
Yesterday, ultra-Orthodox retiree Mr Aharon Kaufman shuffled away from a service at the Western Wall and slumped against the No. 2 bus stop, from where the doomed vehicle had departed. "The killing is incomprehensible. It is a sense of devastation - like Tisha Be'Av," he said, alluding to the traditional date for the destruction of the two ancient Jewish temples whose last vestige is the Wall.
In accordance with Jewish practice, all the body parts of the victims and bloodstained detritus such as the tree branches must be buried. West Jerusalem's main cemetery geared up for mass funeral processions - one of them setting off from a religious enclave, Bnei Brak, near coastal Tel Aviv. Mr Eckstein and fellow volunteers prepared water for distribution to mourners. "With all the excitement, they tend to forget the summer heat," he said, noting the heavy dark frocks and headgear.
"It is a very stoic community, a community with a very long view of Jewish history that lives with that history as a present reality," Mr Rosenblum said. "One knows that as bad as things are today, in some ways what is worse is the loss of hope."