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Patt Junction bus bombing

Coordinates: 31°45′00″N 35°11′54″E / 31.75000°N 35.19833°E / 31.75000; 35.19833
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Patt junction bus bombing
Part of the Second Intifada militancy campaign
Memorial for the attack victims
Patt Junction bus bombing is located in Jerusalem
Patt Junction bus bombing
The attack site
Native nameהפיגוע בקו 32א
LocationJerusalem
Coordinates31°45′00″N 35°11′54″E / 31.75000°N 35.19833°E / 31.75000; 35.19833
DateJune 18, 2002; 22 years ago (2002-06-18)
c.7:50 am (UTC+2)
TargetEgged bus
Attack type
Suicide bombing
WeaponSuicide vest
Deaths19 civilians (+1 bomber)
Injured74+ civilians
Perpetrator Hamas claimed responsibility
Participant1

A Palestinian suicide bombing on an Egged bus was carried out by Hamas in Jerusalem on June 18, 2002, killing 20 people (including the bomber) and wounding over 74. 17 of the dead were residents of Gilo.[1]

The attack

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On the morning of June 18, 2002, at 7:50 am, 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]

The perpetrators

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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.[4][5] 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.[6]

Aftermath

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Charred bus exhibit

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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.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Fisher, Ian (20 June 2002). "MIDEAST TURMOIL: THE MOOD; In Jerusalem, Despair and Determination". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  2. ^ New York times New architecture in Beit Safafa
  3. ^ Patt Junction terror attack
  4. ^ Patt Junction terror attack
  5. ^ "Mideast Dispatch Archive: Bombed Israeli bus to be exhibited in New York, and other stories". Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  6. ^ Peter Beaumont, 'Hamas threat over killing of key bomber,' The Guardian 2 July 2002
  7. ^ "Mideast Dispatch Archive: Bombed Israeli bus to be exhibited in New York, and other stories". Retrieved 14 December 2014.
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