Patt Junction Bus bombing

The Patt junction bus bombing was a suicide bombing on an Egged bus carried out by Hamas in Jerusalem on June 18, 2002, killing 19 people and wounding over 74. Seventeen of the dead were residents of Gilo.[1]

Patt junction bus bombing
Part of the Second Intifada militancy campaign

The attack site
LocationJerusalem
DateJune 18, 2002
TargetEgged bus
Attack type
suicide bomber
Deaths19 (+ 1 bomber)
Injured74+
PerpetratorsHamas claimed responsibility

The attack

On the morning of June 18, 2002, at 7:50 a.m., a Palestinian suicide bomber from Bethlehem got onto the Egged line 32A bus, which came from the Gilo neighborhood and stopped at Beit Safafa, an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem.[2] The bomber boarded the bus and exploded himself in the front. His explosive belt included metal balls for shrapnel in order to maximize casualties.[3]

Fatalities
  • Boaz Aluf, 54, of Jerusalem
  • Shani Avi-Zedek, 15, of Jerusalem
  • Leah Baruch, 59, of Jerusalem[4]
  • Mendel Bereson, 72, of Jerusalem
  • Raphael Berger, 28, of Jerusalem
  • Michal Biazi, 24, of Jerusalem
  • Tatiana Braslavsky, 41, of Jerusalem
  • Galila Bugala, 11, of Jerusalem
  • Raisa Dikstein, 67, of Jerusalem
  • Dr. Moshe Gottlieb, 70, of Jerusalem
  • Baruch Gruani, 60, of Jerusalem
  • Orit Hayla, 21, of Jerusalem
  • Elena Ivan, 63, of Jerusalem
  • Iman Kabha, 26, of Barta'a
  • Shiri Negari, 21, of Jerusalem [5]
  • Gila Nakav, 55, of Jerusalem
  • Yelena Plagov, 42, of Jerusalem
  • Liat Yagen, 24 of Jerusalem
  • Rahamim Zidkiyahu, 51, of Jerusalem[6]

The perpetrators

Palestinian Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack. The suicide bomber was identified as Muhammad al-Ghoul, a 22-year-old student at An-Najah National University in Nablus. He strapped explosives packed with nails to his body and boarded the bus during the morning rush hour as schoolchildren and commuters travelled to downtown Jerusalem from Gilo. The explosion lifted the bus off the ground, tore off its roof and sent bodies flying through the windows.[7][8] Two residents of the East Jerusalem suburb of Jabel Mukaber were tried and convicted for transporting the suicide bomber. During a commando raid in Nablus on June 30, Israeli soldiers killed senior Hamas bomb-maker Muhaned Taher, who according to Israel was behind this and other attacks.[9]

Aftermath

Charred bus exhibit

The charred remains of the bus were shipped to America and displayed at the biannual Jewish Expo fair in New York at the initiative of Zaka, an Israeli rescue and body parts recovery organization whose volunteers scrape up fragments of blood and flesh from bomb scenes for burial in keeping with Jewish law. Zaka said its aim was to increase awareness of its work and show the effects of suicide bombings.[10]

See also

References
  1. "MIDEAST TURMOIL: THE MOOD; In Jerusalem, Despair and Determination". 20 June 2002. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  2. New York times New architecture in Beit Safafa
  3. Patt Junction terror attack
  4. "Community mourns bus bombing victims from Gilo". Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  5. DN. "Remembering Shiri Negari". Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  6. "Community mourns bus bombing victims from Gilo". Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  7. Patt Junction terror attack
  8. "Mideast Dispatch Archive: Bombed Israeli bus to be exhibited in New York, and other stories". Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  9. Peter Beaumont, 'Hamas threat over killing of key bomber,' The Guardian 2 July 2002
  10. "Mideast Dispatch Archive: Bombed Israeli bus to be exhibited in New York, and other stories". Retrieved 14 December 2014.

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