Coordinates: 32°19′57″N 34°51′03″E / 32.3325°N 34.85083°E
| Passover massacre | |
|---|---|
| Location | Netanya |
| Date | March 27, 2002 |
| Target | Park Hotel's Jewish guests |
| Attack type | suicide bomber |
| Death(s) | 30 |
| Perpetrator(s) | Hamas |
The Passover massacre[1] (also known as the Netanya Bombing or the Park Hotel Passover attack) was a suicide bombing carried out by Hamas[2] at the Park Hotel in Netanya, Israel on March 27, 2002, during a Passover seder. Thirty Israeli civilians were killed in the attack and 140 were injured. It was the deadliest attack against Israelis during the Second Intifada.
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The attack occurred on the night of March 27, when the Jewish holiday of Passover fell that year. The Park Hotel in Netanya held a large Passover seder (festive religious meal) for its 250 guests, especially elderly Jews who didn't have family and relatives, in the ground-floor dining room. A Palestinian suicide bomber passed a security guard at the hotel's entrance, walked through the lobby passing the reception desk and entered the hotel's dining room where he detonated an explosive device he carried in a suitcase. Twenty-eight people were immediately killed, and about 140 were injured, of whom 20 were seriously injured. Two of the injured later died from their wounds. Some of the victims were Holocaust survivors.[3][4][5] Most of the victims were senior citizens (70 and over). The oldest victim was 90 and the youngest was 20 years old. A number of married couples were killed, as well as a father together with his daughter. One of the victims was a Jewish tourist from Sweden who was visiting Israel for Passover.[6]
Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The bomber was identified as Abdel-Basset Odeh, a 25-year-old from the nearby West Bank city of Tulkarm. Hamas claimed that the attack was specifically designed to derail momentum from a recently announced peace initiative of the Saudi Arabian government at the Beirut Summit.[7] In March 2008, the Israeli Defense Forces arrested Hamas commander Omar Jabar, who was suspected of organizing the bombing.[8]
In his response to the Saudi initiative adopted at the Beirut Summit, Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel Shimon Peres noted that "… the details of every peace plan must be discussed directly between Israel and the Palestinians, and to make this possible, the Palestinian Authority must put an end to terror, the horrifying expression of which we witnessed just last night in Netanya."[9]
In the wake of the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his cabinet ordered the immediate recruitment of 20,000 reservists in an emergency call-up and the following day launched Operation Defensive Shield.
Electronic Intifada reported that the Palestinian Authority condemned the attack with Yasser Arafat saying: "On this occasion, I would like once again to reiterate our condemnation of yesterday's operation in Netanya, in which a number of innocent Israeli civilians were killed and wounded."[10] The Zionist Organization of America and Palestinian Media Watch, however, reported that the PA sponsored a soccer tournament named the "Tulkarm Shahids Memorial soccer championship tournament of the Shahid Abd Al-Baset Odeh" describing the perpetrator as a "shahid" (Martyr), claiming this promotes and glorifies terrorism.[11][12] 71% of Palestinians polled about this event approved of naming a soccer tournament in honor of the bomber.[13]
Keis Adwan, head of the suicide bombing network responsible for the massacre,[14] was killed on April 5, 2002, during Operation Defensive Shield after the IDF and the Yamam caught him in Tubas, some 70 kilometers north of Jerusalem. An armored Caterpillar D9 bulldozer toppled the house where he was hiding, after he was given a chance to surrender and refused.[15]
In May 2002, Israeli forces arrested the mastermind behind the attack, Abbas al-Sayed. On September 22, 2005, al-Sayed was convicted of the Passover attack and also of ordering the May 2001 bombing of a Netanya mall. He received 35 life sentences for each murder victim and additional time for those who were wounded.
In September 2009, Muhammad Harwish, a senior Hamas terrorist and one of the planners of the 2002 Park Hotel bombing, was arrested by The Border Police's elite Yamam Counter-terror squad in his home village along with his personal aide, Adnan Samara.[16]
| Name | Age | Hometown |
|---|---|---|
| Shula Abramovitch | 70 | Holon |
| David Anichovitch | 70 | Netanya |
| Avraham Beckerman (Sgt.-Maj.) | 25 | Ashdod |
| Shimon Ben-Aroya | 42 | Netanya |
| Frieda and Alter Britvich | 86 and 88 | Netanya |
| Idit and Andre Fried | Both 47 | Netanya |
| Miriam Gottsegen | 82 | Ramat Gan |
| Amiram Hamami | 44 | Netanya |
| Perla Hermele | 79 | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Dvora and Michael Karim | 73 and 78 | Netanya |
| Yehudit and Eliezer Korman | 70 and 74 | Ramat HaSharon |
| Marianne Myriam Lehmann Zaoui | 77 | Netanya |
| Lola Levkovitch | 70 | Jerusalem |
| Sarah Levy-Hoffman | 89 | Tel-Aviv |
| Furuk Na'imi | 62 | Netanya |
| Eliahu Nakash | 85 | Tel-Aviv |
| Chanah Rogan | 90 | Netanya |
| Irit Rashel | 45 | Moshav Herev La'et |
| Clara Rosenberger | 77 | Jerusalem |
| Yulia Talmi | 87 | Tel-Aviv |
| Sivan (St.-Sgt.) and Ze'ev Vider | 20 and 50 | Beka'ot |
| Eva and Ernest Weiss | 75 and 80 | Petah Tikva |
| Anna and George Yakobovitch | 76 and 78 | Holon |
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