Maxim restaurant suicide bombing

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Maxim restaurant bombing
Part of the Second Intifada militancy campaign
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Maxim restaurant, 2009
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The attack site
LocationHaifa, Israel
Coordinates 32°48′46″N34°57′20″E / 32.81278°N 34.95556°E / 32.81278; 34.95556
DateOctober 4, 2003;20 years ago (2003-10-04)
14:10 pm
Attack type
Suicide bombing
Deaths21 civilians (+1 bomber)
Injured60
Perpetrator PIJ claimed responsibility
Assailant Hanadi Jaradat
Participant1

The Maxim restaurant bombing was a suicide bombing which occurred on October 4, 2003, in the beachfront "Maxim" restaurant in Haifa, Israel. Twenty-one civilians were killed and 60 were injured. Among the victims were two families and four children, including a two-month-old baby.

Contents

The restaurant, which is located at the seafront near the southern boundary of the city of Haifa, was frequently attended by both Arab and Jewish local populations, and was widely seen as a symbol of peaceful coexistence in Haifa.

The militant organization Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. It was condemned by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. The restaurant's interior was destroyed by the blast (it was completely rebuilt seven months after the attack).

Background

The Maxim restaurant is a beachfront restaurant located near the south entry to Haifa. It is co-owned by Jews and Christian Arabs, and is known for being a symbol of co-existence. [1] [2]

The attack

Oran Almog, who was ten years old at time of the bombing, was blinded by the blast, lost two of his grandparents, his father, his brother and his cousin. OrenAlmog.jpg
Oran Almog, who was ten years old at time of the bombing, was blinded by the blast, lost two of his grandparents, his father, his brother and his cousin.

On October 4, 2003, at 14:10 pm, the 28-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat detonated the explosive belt she was wearing inside the Arab-Jewish Maxim restaurant in Haifa. 21 Israelis (18 Jews and 3 Arabs) were killed, and 60 others were wounded. [4] The bomb included metal fragments packed around the explosive core, that sprayed around the restaurant, maximizing lethal effect. [5] According to Haifa police sources, the aftermath was gruesome, with some of the dead still sitting upright at their tables, while others, including children and babies, were slammed against the walls. Due to the force of the explosion, all that remained of Jaradat was her head. [5]

Among the victims were two families and four children, including a two-month-old baby. Three Maccabi Haifa officials were lightly injured in the bombing. [6]

The assailant

The suicide bomber, 28-year-old Hanadi Jaradat (Arabic : هنادي تيسير عبد المالك جردات) from Jenin, was the sixth female suicide bomber of the Al-Aqsa Intifada and the second woman recruited by Islamic Jihad. [7]

When she was 21, her fiancé had been killed by Israeli security forces. [8] At the time of her suicide bombing, Jaradat was a law student due to qualify as a lawyer in a few weeks. According to a story in Ha'aretz , based on Arab media and interviews with Israeli and Arab sources, she agreed to the bombing after Israel Defense Forces undercover operatives in Jenin killed her cousin (Salah, 34), and her younger brother (Fadi, 25), both of whom were accused by Israeli forces of being Islamic Jihad operatives, with her cousin being considered to be a senior member of the Al-Quds Brigades group. [7]

Israeli response

The day following the suicide bombing, the Israeli Army demolished the home of Jaradat's family, and the homes of two neighbors who were uninvolved in the bombing. [9] In response to the attack, which Israel claimed was planned in the Damascus headquarters of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an alleged terrorist training camp in Ain es-Saheb, Syria, was bombed by four Israeli Air Force jets. One person was injured, and munitions were allegedly destroyed during the strike. [10]

Jamal Mahadjne, an Israeli-Arab from Umm al-Fahm, was arrested within hours of the attack for driving Jaradat to her destination. Mahadjne had regularly taken fees for illegally driving Palestinians to Israel, taking advantage of his Israeli identity card to cross the border without difficulty. He confessed his actions to Shin Bet agents, and was indicted before the Haifa District Court for being an accessory to murder and for other crimes relating to his illegal activities on November 10. [11]

On November 7, Israel Defense Forces troops arrested senior Islamic Jihad militant Amjad Abeidi, who planned the attack, along with a number of other suicide bombings, during an operation in Jenin. During the operation, Jenin was placed under curfew as soldiers searched homes. One Palestinian teenager was shot dead while climbing a tank, and three Palestinians were wounded. The complex in which Abeidi was hiding was located and searched, and a weapons cache was found. After a grenade was thrown into the cache, Abeidi was lightly wounded and surrendered. As the soldiers left Jenin with Abeidi, Palestinian militants opened fire at them, and the soldiers returned fire. One militant, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, was killed. Abeidi was handed over to Shin Bet for interrogation. [12]

In 2017 Oran Almog, one of the victims of the attack, addressed the United Nations Security Council to demand that the Palestinian Authority cease incentivizing terrorism by paying stipends to terrorists. [13]

Official reactions

Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon stated that Israel held Palestinian President Yasser Arafat responsible for the attack. [14] Arafat condemned the bombing. [15] U.S. President George W. Bush condemned the attack, calling it a "murderous action" and a "despicable attack". [16]

Aftermath

The memorial built near the restaurant, in memory of the victims of the attack Andartamaxim.jpg
The memorial built near the restaurant, in memory of the victims of the attack

In response to his daughter's actions, her father Taisir declined all condolences, instead saying that he was proud of what his daughter had done, and that "I will accept only congratulations for what she did. This was a gift she gave me, the homeland and the Palestinian people." [17]

In October 2012, the Arab Lawyers Union awarded their top award to Hanadi Jaradat, and sent a delegation to her family to present them with the award. Ayman Abu Eisheh, who is a member of the Palestine Committee at the Arab Lawyers Union, explained that the lawyers were proud of Jaradat, saying that suicide bombing was "in defense of Palestine and the Arab nation." [18]

Although the interior of the restaurant was destroyed in the attack, it was quickly rebuilt and reopened within several months. [19] A monument was erected near the restaurant in memory of the victims killed in the attack. [20]

See also

Related Research Articles

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Intifada</span> 2000–2005 Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation

The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against the Israeli occupation, characterized by a period of heightened violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel between 2000 and 2005. The general triggers for the unrest are speculated to have been centered on the failure of the 2000 Camp David Summit, which was expected to reach a final agreement on the Israeli–Palestinian peace process in July 2000. An uptick in violent incidents started in September 2000, after Israeli politician Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit to the Al-Aqsa compound, which is situated atop the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem; the visit itself was peaceful, but, as anticipated, sparked protests and riots that Israeli police put down with rubber bullets, live ammunition, and tear gas. Within the first few days of the uprising, the IDF had fired one million rounds of ammunition.

Note: The death toll quoted here is just the sum of the listings. There may be many omissions from the list. The human rights organisation B'Tselem has complied statistics of about 600 deaths during 2003 in the occupied territories alone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Defensive Shield</span> 2002 Israeli military operation

Operation Defensive Shield was a 2002 Israeli military operation in the West Bank, carried out amidst the Second Intifada. Lasting for just over a month, it was the largest combat operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, when Israel seized the territory from Jordan. Israel's stated goal for the escalation was to stop Palestinian terrorist attacks; the operation was launched two days after the Passover massacre, in which a Palestinian suicide bomber attacked the Park Hotel in Netanya, killing 30 civilians while injuring 140 more.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanadi Jaradat</span> Palestinian terrorist

Hanadi Tayseer Abdul Malek Jaradat was a Palestinian from Jenin, who blew herself up on Saturday, 4 October 2003 in a suicide attack on Maxim restaurant, a restaurant co-owned by the same Jewish and Arab families for 40 years, in the northern Israeli city of Haifa. She killed 21 Jewish and Arab Israelis, and injured 51 more. Among the dead were four Israeli children, including a two-month old infant, and five Arabs. She had been recruited by Islamic Jihad.

Mahmoud Tawalbe was the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Jenin, one of the main strongholds of the terrorist organization.

This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2004.

The Matza restaurant suicide bombing occurred on March 31, 2002, when a Palestinian Hamas suicide bomber detonated his bomb inside the Matza restaurant in Haifa, Israel, near the Grand Canyon shopping mall, killing 16 Israeli civilians and injuring over 40 people. Journalist Giulio Meotti described the attack as a massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wafa Idris</span> Palestinian suicide bomber

Wafa Idris, a Palestinian Red Crescent volunteer, was the first female suicide bomber in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. She killed herself while committing the Jaffa Street bombing. At the time of her suicide, Idris was a 28-year-old, divorcee, and lived in the Am'ari Refugee Camp in Ramallah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dolphinarium discotheque massacre</span> 2001 nightclub bombing in Tel Aviv, Israel

On 1 June 2001, a Hamas-affiliated Islamist terrorist blew himself up outside the Dolphinarium discotheque on the beachfront in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing 21 Israelis, 16 of whom were teenagers. The majority of the victims were Israeli teenage girls whose families had recently immigrated from the former Soviet Union.

The 2nd Rosh Ha'ir restaurant bombing was a suicide bombing on 17 April 2006 at Rosh Ha'ir shawarma restaurant in Tel Aviv, Israel. Eleven Israeli civilians were killed in the attack and 70 were injured, in the deadliest attack in Israel in nearly two years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinian Islamic Jihad</span> Paramilitary organization based in Gaza

The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, commonly known simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist paramilitary organization formed in 1981.

The following is a partial list of civilian casualties in the Second Intifada.

Events in the year 2003 in Israel.

Events in the year 2002 in Israel.

Events in the year 2005 in the Palestinian territories.

The Camp 80 junction bus 823 attack was a suicide bombing which occurred on November 29, 2001, on an Egged bus in northern Israel. The bus, en route from Nazareth to Tel Aviv, was traveling through the town of Pardes Hanna-Karkur. Three passengers were killed in the attack and nine were injured.

Events in the year 2001 in the Palestinian territories.

Events in the year 2003 in the Palestinian territories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Binyamina train station suicide bombing</span> 2001 Palestinian attack in Binyamina, Israel

The Binyamina train station suicide bombing occurred on 16 July 2001 by a Palestinian suicide bomber near the Binyamina railway station in the town of Binyamina-Giv'at Ada, Israel. Two people were killed and 11 were injured.

References

  1. ↑ Gilbert, Martin (2012). The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Routledge. p. 216. ISBN   9780415699754. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  2. ↑ Arab-Jewish Restaurant Refuses to Stop Serving Its Coexistence Recipe Archived October 3, 2017, at the Wayback Machine . Haaretz, 17 October 2015
  3. ↑ Meotti, Giulio (2010). A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism. New York: Encounter Books. p. 187. ISBN   978-1-59403-477-0.
  4. ↑ "Suicide bombing of Maxim restaurant in Haifa-4-Oct-2003". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. State of Israel. January 21, 2004. Archived from the original on October 6, 2020. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  5. 1 2 Cult of the FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER. The Sunday Times Magazine (Perth, W. Australia). By KEVIN TOOLIS, pp 12–15, September 10, 2006
  6. ↑ Eyewitness: 'Dead children and babies Archived August 25, 2018, at the Wayback Machine . BBC, 4 October 2003
  7. 1 2 Arnon Regular,Profile of the Haifa suicide bomber. Archived February 16, 2006, at the Wayback Machine October 5, 2003; www.haaretz.com.
  8. ↑ David Blair, "Revenge sparked suicide bombing". The Daily Telegraph via The Ottawa Citizen , October 6, 2003: A9.
  9. ↑ David Blair, "Revenge sparked suicide bombing". The Daily Telegraph via The Ottawa Citizen, October 6, 2003: A9.
  10. ↑ Crean, Ellen (October 5, 2003). "Israel Strikes Base Inside Syria". CBS/AP. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Israeli Arab Citizen Indicted for Part in Maxim Restaurant Attack – Latest News Briefs – Arutz Sheva". Israelnationalnews.com. November 10, 2003. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Witnesses: Palestinian Killed in Jenin". Haaretz. November 6, 2003. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
  13. ↑ "After Halamish attack, Israel demands UN address PA terror payments". Times of Israel. January 25, 2017. Archived from the original on July 25, 2017. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  14. ↑ "The Day – Google News Archive Search". Archived from the original on July 12, 2012.
  15. ↑ Archived February 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  16. ↑ Green, Michele (October 5, 2003). "Female Bomber Kills 19 In Israeli Suicide Strike". Daily News. Archived from the original on November 19, 2011. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
  17. ↑ Vered Levy-Barzalai, Ticking bomb. Archived January 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine October 16, 2003; www.haaretz.com.
  18. ↑ Abu Toameh, Khaled (October 13, 2012). "Arab Lawyers Union honors Palestinian suicide bomber". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on February 9, 2013. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
  19. ↑ "Haifa's Maxim restaurant reopens". Free Public/Jerusalem Post. December 8, 2003. Archived from the original on February 28, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  20. ↑ "Relatives of victims of Maxim Haifa attack hold memorial". Ynetnews. Ynet News. October 4, 2013. Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
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