Violence in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict 2002

"Note: This compilation includes only those attacks that resulted in casualties. Attacks which did not kill or wound are not included."

Total Death Toll in 2002: 385

January (death toll: 21)

*January 9: Four Israeli soldiers are killed when two Hamas militants wearing Palestinian police uniforms attacked an IDF post near the Gaza Strip with grenades and assault rifles. The soldiers managed to kill one of the attackers. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,629854,00.html]
*January 10-11: The IDF demolished 59 houses and damaged another 200 in Rafah refugee camp. Over six hundred Palestinians are made homeless. [http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE150102002?open&of=ENG-ISR] , [http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/2002/2-2002/0465.html]
*January 14: The IDF assassinated Raed al-Karmi, head of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Tulkarem. An Israeli was killed near Shavei Shomron by Palestinian gunmen. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,633643,00.html] [http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE150102002?open&of=ENG-ISR]
*January 15: An Israeli woman shot dead in Jerusalem; a man (an American citizen living in Israel) kidnapped into Nablus and shot dead there.
*January 16: An Arab resident of East Jerusalem killed while driving in a car with Israeli license plates near Jenin.
*January 17: An armed gunman killed six and wounded 33 in a Bat Mitzvah celebration in Hadera. The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. [http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE150102002?open&of=ENG-ISR]
*January 18: An Israeli F-16 jet fighter destroyed the Palestinian Authority's main police headquarters in Tulkarem. One policeman was killed and 40 wounded.
*January 21: A 19-year-old Palestinian was killed and seven wounded in fighting with Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Tulkarem. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,637369,00.html]
*January 22: Two women killed by a Fatah (Al-Aqsa Brigades) gunman in Jerusalem
*January 25: 20 people are injured in a suicide bombing in the Old Bus Station of Tel-Aviv.
*January 27: A suicide bombing attack in Jerusalem by Fatah. An elderly Israeli was killed and 172 wounded. The attack marked the first time a female suicide bomber was used.

February (death toll: 50)

*February 6: An Israeli woman, her 11 year-old daughter and a soldier guarding them killed in a gun attack in the Israeli village of Hamra. Both Fatah and Hamas claimed responsibility.
*February 8: An Israeli woman stabbed to death by several Palestinian young men while walking in a park in Jerusalem.
*February 9: An elderly woman shot and killed while driving in the northern West Bank.
*February 10: Two female Israeli soldiers killed in a shooting attack in a civilian bakery near a military base in Be'er Sheva. 4 people are injured. Hamas claimed responsibility.
*February 16: Two teenagers killed in a suicide bombing at a pizzeria in the northern West Bank. Another teenage girl, wounded in the attack, died 11 days later. The PFLP claimed responsibility.
*February 18: An Israeli-Arab policeman killed by a suicide bomber. Fatah (Al-Aqsa) claims responsibility. A settler woman and two soldiers trying to assist her killed in a combined shooting and bombing in Gaza. Fatah (Al-Aqsa) claims responsibility.
*February 19: Palestinian guerillas stormed an army checkpoint at Ein Ariq near Ramallah killing six Israeli soldiers. The Al-Aqsa Brigade and Hamas claimed joint responsibility. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,653129,00.html]
*February 20: In retaliation of the raid February 19, Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked structures belonging to the Palestinian Authority. Four Palestinians were killed in a missile attack at the PA's compound in Gaza, seven in Israeli shelling of two Palestinian police checkpoints near Nablus, three in a firefight outside Balata refugee camp, one in an airstrike on Ramallah and one in a firefight near Ramallah. In total, 16 Palestinians was killed. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,653163,00.html]
*February 22: An Israeli civilian was killed by gunmen in a drive-by shooting on the Atarot-Givat Ze'ev road north of Jerusalem, on his way home from his workplace.
*February 25: Two Israelis killed in a shooting attack between Tekoa and Nokdim, south of Bethlehem. One of the victims' pregnant daughter was injured. An Israeli policewoman is killed when a gunman opened fire at a bus stop in the Neve Yaakov residential neighborhood in northern Jerusalem.
*February 26: A 15 year old girl, wielding a knife, was shot and killed at an Israeli checkpoint near Tulkarm in what seems to have been a failed attack at that checkpoint. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,658074,00.html]
*February 27: An Israeli is shot and killed by one of his Palestinian employees in a factory in the Atarot industrial area, north of Jerusalem.
*February 28: More than 100 Palestinians were wounded and two killed as the Israel army stormed the Balata refugee camp. In Jenin, six Palestinian policemen was shot dead as tanks entered the camp.

March (death toll: 134)

*March 2: The bullet-ridden body of a Jerusalem police detective was discovered next to his trail motorcycle, near the Mar Saba Monastery in the Judean Desert. 11 people killed in a suicide bombing near a yeshiva in the "Haredi" Beit Yisrael neighborhood in the center of Jerusalem.
*March 3: 10 Israelis, soldiers and civilians, are killed by a Palestinian sniper in an IDF road block near Ofra, in Samaria (northern West Bank).
*March 4: Six Palestinians, five of them children, were killed in Ramallah as a tank shelled a pickup truck and another vehicle belonging to a suspected Hamas militant. In Jenin, six more Palestinians were killed during a fire exchange with Israeli soldiers. In Rafah refugee camp, two Palestinian gunmen and one civilian was killed and three buildings demolished. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,661639,00.html]
*March 5: Three people killed in Tel-Aviv when a Palestinian gunman opened fire on two adjacent restaurants. An Israeli woman was killed in shooting attack on the Bethlehem bypass "tunnel" road, south of Jerusalem, on her way to work. Her husband was injured. An 85-year-old Israeli was killed when a suicide bomber exploded in an Egged No. 823 bus as it entered the Afula central bus station.
*March 7: Five Israeli teenagers were killed and 23 injured when a Palestinian gunman penetrated a school in the Gush Katif settlement of Atzmona. Hamas gunmen entered the southern Gush Katif community, opening fire and throwing hand grenades at the school and nearby houses. One of those killed sustained third degree burns over 90% of his body after a grenade was thrown through the window of his dorm room. He died of his wounds in the hospital 5 hours after the attack.
*March 9: A 9-month-old baby and a man were killed when two Palestinians opened fire and threw grenades at cars and pedestrians in the coastal city of Netanya, close to the city's boardwalk and hotels. 11 people killed and 54 others wounded when a suicide bomber exploded in the crowded "Cafe Moment" in the center of Jerusalem.
*March 12: One Israeli killed and another wounded in a shooting attack at the Kiryat Sefer checkpoint, east of Modi'in. Six people (three men and three women, including a teenager) killed when two gunmen opened fire from an ambush on Israeli vehicles traveling between Shlomi and Kibbutz Metzuba near the northern border with Lebanon.
*March 17: An 18-year-old girl was killed and 16 people were injured when a gunman opened fire on passersby in the center of Kfar Sava.
*March 20: Seven Israelis killed in a suicide bombing of an Egged bus No. 823 traveling from Tel Aviv to Nazareth, near Afula.
*March 21: Three people killed and 86 injured when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb, packed with metal spikes and nails, in the center of a crowd of shoppers on King George Street in the center of Jerusalem.
*March 24: Esther Kleinman, 23 years old, of N'vei Tzuf was shot and killed on the Abud Bypass Road in the Shomron en route to work as a kindergarten teacher in the community of Ofrah. Avi Sabag, 24 years old, of Otniel was shot to dead by gunmen as he was returning home from shopping for Passover in Jerusalem. He was driving in the Hevron Hills area near his home community.
*March 27: The Passover Massacre: 30 Israelis were killed and over 140 wounded when a suicide bomber exploded in the crowded dining room of the Park Hotel in Netanya.
*March 28: Four family members killed in Elon Moreh, when a Palestinian gunman infiltrated the hilltop community near Nablus, burst into their home, and shot them.
*March 29: Two elderly men were stabbed to death while on their way to the synagogue for morning prayers, when a Palestinian gunman infiltrated the Neztarim settlement in the Gaza Strip.
*March 30: Two people killed when a female suicide bomber blew herself up in the Kiryat Yovel supermarket in Jerusalem. Some 30 people were injured in a suicide bombing in a cafe in southern Tel-Aviv. One of the victims, a 36-year-old woman, died of her wounds five days later.
*March 31: 15 people killed in a suicide bombing in Haifa, in the Matza restaurant of the gas station near the "Grand Canyon" shopping mall.

April (death toll: 30) (excluding Jenin fatalities)

*April 1: A 19-year-old police volunteer was killed in Jerusalem, when a Palestinian suicide bomber driving toward the city center blew himself up after being stopped at a roadblock. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
*April 10: Eight people killed and 22 wounded in a suicide bombing on Egged bus #960, en route from Haifa to Jerusalem, which exploded near Kibbutz Yagur, east of Haifa.
*April 12: Seven people killed by a woman suicide bomber who detonated a powerful charge at a bus stop on Jaffa road next to the entrance to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market. Another 104 people were injured in the blast, among them nine Arabs. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
*April 17: Tel Aviv resident Meir Franco, 48, was murdered by gunman in Sinai.
*April 27: Four people, including a 5-year-old girl, killed when gunmen dressed in IDF uniforms and combat gear cut through the settlement's defensive perimeter fence and entered Adora, west of Hebron. The gunmen entered several homes, firing on people in their bedrooms.
*April 29: Israeli forces invaded the West Bank town of Hebron and killed nine Palestinians. In the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, a Palestinian gunmen was shot dead by Israeli snipers. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,707023,00.html]
*From April 03 to April 12: 52 Palestinians, 22 of them civilians and 23 Israeli soldiers were confirmed killed in Jenin. [http://www.un.org/peace/jenin/]

May (death toll: 30)

*May 7: 15 people killed and 55 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated a powerful charge in a game club located on the 3rd floor of a building in Rishon LeZion, causing part of the building to collapse. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
*May 12: An Israeli settler of Pe'at Sadeh in the southern Gaza Strip was shot and killed by a Palestinian laborer, when he came to pick him up at a checkpoint.
*May 19: Three Israelis killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded section of Netanya's open-air market.
*May 21: One Israeli injured when a bomb explodes Kehilat Katzuvitch Street in northern Tel Aviv.
*May 22: Two people (one of them a teenager) are killed in suicide bombing in the heart of Rishon LeZion.
*May 27: A woman and her infant granddaughter, aged 14 months, of Petah Tikva were killed when a suicide bomber detonated himself near an ice cream parlor outside a shopping mall.
*May 28: Two Israelis were killed when shots were fired at the car in which they were traveling south on the Ramallah bypass road. Three yeshiva high school students killed in Itamar, southeast of Nablus, when a Palestinian gunman infiltrated the community and opened fire on the teenagers.
*May 29: Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops. On in the southern Gaza Strip in Khan Yunis and one gunman belonging to Islamic Jihad in Jenin on the West Bank. Additionally, four homes were blown up and 20 damaged in Rafah. [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/29/1054177670738.html]

June (death toll: 54)

*June 5: 17 people killed when a car packed with a large quantity of explosives struck Egged bus No. 830 traveling from Tel-Aviv to Tiberias at the Megiddo junction near Afula. The car exploded near the gasoline tank of the bus, causing it to burst into flames. Most of the casualties were soldiers who were on their way to their bases. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
*June 6: 18-year-old Israeli student died of gunshot wounds to the chest sustained in a shooting attack near Ofra, north of Ramallah, when Palestinian gunmen opened fire in an ambush.
*June 8: Three Israelis, including a ninth month pregnant woman, were shot dead when gunmen infiltrated the community of Carmei Tzur north of Hebron.
*June 8: A terrorist infiltrated into the Jordan Valley community of Mechora. A woman was murdered and her husband, 30, wounded.
*June 11: A 14-year-old girl was killed when a Palestinian suicide bomber set off a relatively small pipe bomb at a shwarma restaurant in Herzliya.
*June 18: 19 people killed and 74 wounded in a suicide bombing at the Patt junction in Egged bus no. 32A traveling from Gilo to the center of Jerusalem. The bomber boarded the bus at the stop in Beit Safafa, an Arab neighborhood opposite Gilo, and almost immediately detonated the large bomb which he carried in a bag stuffed with ball bearings. The blast destroyed the front half of the bus, packed with people on their way to work and schoolchildren.
*June 19: Seven people, including a 5-year-old girl and her grandmother, were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus stop and hitchhiking post at the French Hill intersection in northern Jerusalem.
*June 20: Five people, including a mother and three of her sons, were murdered when a gunman entered their home in Itamar, south of Nablus, and opened fire.

July (death toll: 29)

*July 16: Nine people (two men, six women, and an infant child) were killed in an attack on Dan bus no. 189 traveling from Bnei Brak to Emmanuel in Samaria. Two 20-kilo bombs were set off about 200 meters from the town's entrance, damaging the bus's front tires and forcing it off the road. The explosion damaged the bus doors, trapping the passengers inside. The militants then started to shoot at the bus, firing through the unprotected roof and throwing grenades through the narrow upper windows, which are not armored.
*July 17: Five people were killed and about 40 injured in a double suicide bombing on Neve Sha'anan Street near the old central bus station in Tel Aviv. The bombs, which were strapped to the waists of the bombers, contained nails and metal shards.
*July 25: A 43-year-old Rabbi was killed and another civilian injured in a shooting attack near the West Bank community of Alei Zahav, west of Ariel.
*July 26: A couple and their 9-year-old son were killed in a shooting attack south of Hebron. Two of their other children were injured.
*July 30: Two brothers were shot and killed when their truck came under fire in the West Bank village of Jama'in, near Ariel, apparently while selling diesel oil to a cement factory in the village.
*July 31: Nine people, some of them American students, were killed when a bomb exploded in the Frank Sinatra cafeteria on the Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus in Jerusalem.

August (death toll: 15)

*August 1: A 27-year old Israeli man was found shot in the head at point-blank range and bound, west of Tulkarem, near the Green Line.
*August 4: Nine people were killed in the suicide bombing of Egged bus No. 361 traveling from Haifa to Safed at the Meron junction in northern Israel. The blast blew off the roof of the bus, which then burst into flames, killing or wounding nearly everyone inside. A 34-year-old Israeli and a 52-year-old Palestinian were killed when a Palestinian gunman opened fire with a pistol near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem's Old City.
*August 5: A young Israeli couple were killed when gunmen opened fire on their car as they were traveling on the Ramallah-Nablus road near Eli in Samaria. One of their children was wounded in the attack.
*August 10: A 31-year-old woman was killed and her husband seriously wounded when a Palestinian gunman infiltrated Moshav Mechora in the Jordan Valley, and opened fire outside their home.

eptember (death toll: 10)

*September 18: The charred body of a 67-year old Israeli construction contractor was found near el-Azzariya, a Palestinian village near Ma'ale Adummim, east of Jerusalem. A 36-year-old Israeli was killed when gunmen opened fire on his car near Mevo Dotan, north of Jenin in the West Bank. An Israeli policeman was killed and three people were wounded in a suicide bombing at a bus stop at the Umm al Fahm junction.
*September 19: Six people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb in Dan bus No. 4 on Allenby Street, opposite the Great Synagogue in Tel-Aviv. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
*September 23: A 48-year-old man was killed and three of his children wounded, one seriously, in a shooting attack near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron during the Sukkot festival.

October (death toll: 22)

*October 8: A 51-year-old Israeli was critically wounded in an ambush shooting south of Hebron. He died of his wounds the following day. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
*October 10: A 71-year-old woman was killed and about 30 people were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up while trying to board Dan bus No. 87 across from Bar-Ilan University on the Geha highway (Route 4) in central Israel.
*October 21: 14 persons were killed when a bus was blown up in a suicide attack by a bomber driving an explosives-laden jeep near the Karkur junction.
*October 27: Three IDF soldiers killed in a suicide bombing at the Sonol gas station at the entrance to Ariel in Samaria while trying to prevent the bomber from detonating the bomb. About 20 people were wounded in the bombing.
*October 29: A woman and two 14-year-old girls were shot dead by a Palestinian gunman who infiltrated the settlement of Hermesh, north of Tulkarm, in Samaria. A soldier and a resident were wounded in the assault.

November (death toll: 51)

*November 4: Two persons killed when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated himself at a Kfar Sava shopping mall.
*November 6: Two Israeli farmers were shot to dead by a Palestinian gunman posing as a worker near Pe'at Sadeh in the southern Gaza Strip.
*November 10: Five people, including a mother and her 4- and 5-year-old children, were shot and killed by a gunman who infiltrated Kibbutz Metzer, located east of Hadera near the Green Line. The gunman shot the mother and children as they hugged one another.
*November 15: 12 people killed, nine soldiers and three paramilitary security guards from the Kiryat Arba emergency response team, and 15 wounded in Hebron when Palestinian militants drew security forces into an ambush after they had escorted Sabbath Eve worshippers back from the Cave of the Patriarchs.
*November 21: 11 people killed and about 50 wounded in a suicide bombing on a No. 20 Egged bus in the Kiryat Menahem neighborhood of Jerusalem. Most of the victims were high-school students on their way to school.
*November 28: Kenyan hotel bombing: Three Israelis, including two brothers, and 10 Kenyans killed when a car bomb exploded in the lobby of the Israeli-owned beachfront Paradise Hotel, frequented almost exclusively by Israeli tourists near Mombasa in Kenya. 21 Israelis and 60 Kenyans were wounded in the attack. Six Israelis were killed when two gunmen opened fire and threw grenades at the Likud polling station in Bet She'an, where party members were casting their votes in the Likud primary.

December (death toll: 14)

*December 20: A 40-year-old rabbi was shot and killed on the Kissufim corridor road (in the Gaza Strip) while driving with his wife and six children to attend a pre-wedding Sabbath celebration in Afula. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
*December 26: In Nablus, Israeli troops killed two Palestinians. A Palestinian who had opened fire against a patrol, and a 15 year old Palestinian boy who got killed in the crossfire. In Tulkarem, one man was killed when he tried to escape arrest. According to Palestinian and Israeli sources he was a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. In Ramallah three Palestinians, one of them a Hamas member, were killed by Israeli troops in separate incidents. In the West Bank village of Qabatiya, Hamza Abu Roub, a top Islamic Jihad leader, was killed while resisting arrest. Four IDF soldiers were wounded in the incident. Thereafter Abu Roub's house was blown up. In the Gaza Strip Israeli troops killed two Hamas members which were attempting an attack on the Netzarim settlement. [http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/12/26/mideast/]
*December 27: Four yeshiva students were killed in Otniel while working in the yeshiva kitchen, serving the Shabbat meal to some 100 students in the adjacent dining room. Two gunmen infiltrated the settlement, entered the yeshiva building through the kitchen service door, and shot dead the four unarmed students.

ee also

*Israel-Gaza conflict