Israel flew its dead and wounded home from Mombasa yesterday in a slick militaristic operation. Yet in the crumbling city they left behind, grieving Kenyans were angry that they have paid the highest price again for international terrorism.
"Why don't they take the war to their own country?" said Soud Mohamed, a 61-year-old taxi driver. "This is the second time we have suffered." As with the 1998 US embassy bombings, Kenyans have accounted for the majority of the dead and injured in the ruthless Paradise Hotel suicide attacks.
The injured were recovering yesterday in Mombasa's Coast General Hospital. Receptionist Jane Mwaura (29) lay deathly still, immobilised by severe burns to her arms, legs and midriff. A cotton patch hid the line of stitches across her head.
"We were just receiving visitors, handling the kids," she whispered. "Then suddenly we saw darkness, and there was a lot of pain." Her colleague, Phlester Kalama (18), was two beds up. She had been brought to the penny-poor hospital in a public bus. Her angry father stood over her bed.
"This is a tug of war between Arabs and Israelis. We don't have any quarrel with either of them," said Patrick Washa. "But because we are a poor country, and security is not good, they come here to target innocent people like my daughter." Head gardener Vincent Tuku saw the bombers' Pajero jeep crash through the hotel gates. "There were three Arabs inside, two in the front and one lying in the back," he said.
Even before the attacks staff had been worried about working for an exclusively Israeli clientele, he said: "There were stories that maybe the Arabs would come to get them. We told the director they should be spread around other hotels."
Less fortunate hotel workers were to be found in the morgue next door. Several bodies were laid out on guernseys, wrapped in tight blue cotton shrouds tied with safety pins.
Six traditional dancers from the Giriama tribe, who had been standing in front of the lobby when the bombers drove up, bore the brunt of the blast.
Their relatives filed silently yesterday into the dirty, humid rooms to identify their remains.
The corpses were treated by Ali Mohamed, an attendant whose green gown was covered with swabs of white cotton.
He said: "Even the Israelis, they are innocent people. It is not good. If you are a true man of your religion, you cannot accept that."
But not all of the coast's Muslims agree. Abubakar Awadh, an official of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, said: "If this was done to Israelis alone, it would be a worthy cause."
Soud Mohamed said: "Most people here can somehow agree with bin Laden.
"They think Bush wants the war to continue, and for Israel to drive the Palestinians out and create a new Israeli state.
"They even have a plan to demolish the mosque in Jerusalem and build a temple in its place. Can you imagine what that is going to cause?"