This week’s suicide bombings in Jerusalem are the latest of a long, deadly series of terror attacks launched by Palestinians against Israeli targets.
Following is a timeline of some of the major attacks this year:
Jan. 15, 2002 — Palestinian gunmen kidnap and then kill an elderly Israeli-American who drives into the Bethlehem area. Also that day, an Israeli woman is shot and killed at the entrance to Givat Ze’ev, a settlement near Jerusalem.
Jan. 17, 2002 — Six Israelis are killed and 33 injured when a Palestinian terrorist with an assault rifle attacks guests at a Bat Mitzvah celebration in Hadera. The gunman is shot and killed by police.
Jan. 22, 2002 — A Palestinian terrorist opens fire in downtown Jerusalem, killing two women and wounding dozens of others, before being shot and killed by police. The Al-Aksa Brigade, a militia associated with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah Party, claims responsibility for the attack.
Jan. 25, 2002 — A Palestinian suicide bomber detonates explosives in a crowded pedestrian shopping mall in Tel Aviv. The bomber kills himself and wounds 24 bystanders. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility.
Jan. 27, 2002 — A female bomber strikes in Jerusalem, killing one man and wounding more than 100 people. It is the first time since the intifada erupted in September 2000 that an attack is carried out by a woman.
Feb 6, 2002 — A mother and her 11-year-old daughter are murdered in their Jordan Valley home. The terrorist, who entered the home disguised in an Israel Defense Force uniform, is killed by IDF forces.
Feb. 16, 2002 — A suicide bomber kills three teen-agers and wounds 27 people in an attack on a shopping mall in a West Bank settlement. The explosion in Karnei Shomron takes place Saturday evening in a pizzeria as people go out at the end of the Sabbath.
Feb. 18, 2002 — A Palestinian kills an Israeli policeman and himself when he detonates a car bomb at a roadblock near Jerusalem. That same day, three Israelis are killed and four injured during a Palestinian ambush in the Gaza Strip.
Feb. 22, 2002 — A Palestinian enters a supermarket in the settlement of Efrat during Friday’s pre-Sabbath rush and tries to set off a bomb, which only partially detonates. He is killed as he tries to set off more explosives strapped to his body. One woman is wounded.
Feb. 25, 2002 — Two Palestinian terrorists kill a police officer and wound at least 10 Israelis when they open fire in northern Jerusalem. In another incident that day, Palestinian terrorists shoot dead two Israelis and wound two others in an attack on motorists near Bethlehem. The wounded include a pregnant woman and a small girl.
Feb. 27, 2002 — Three Israeli police officers are wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber blows up her car at a West Bank checkpoint near the border with Israel. After Hamas refused her request because she was a woman, Dareen Abu Aisheh, 21, got the explosives from the military wing of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.
March 2, 2002 — A suicide bomber kills 10 Israelis, among them six children. The attack occurs just after the Sabbath in the fervently Orthodox neighborhood of Beit Israel, near Mea Shearim in Jerusalem.
March 5, 2002 — A Palestinian terrorist opens fire on two Tel Aviv restaurants, killing three Israelis and wounding dozens. The terrorist also stabs passers-by before being shot and killed by a man in the restaurant and a police officer. In Afula, a suicide bomber blows himself up on a bus at the central bus station, killing one person and wounding 10. Near Bethlehem, an Israeli woman is killed and her husband moderately wounded when shots are fired at their car.
March 7, 2002 — Five Israeli teen-agers are killed and 23 wounded by a Palestinian terrorist in a Gaza settlement. After cutting through fences into the settlement, the terrorist opens fire and throws grenades. Earlier that day, at least six people are injured when a suicide bomber strikes in a West Bank hotel. The explosion occurs after the terrorist enters the lobby of the Hotel Eshel Hashomron, located at the entrance to the settlement of Ariel.
March 9, 2002 — Thirteen people are killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks in Jerusalem and Netanya. In the Jerusalem attack, 11 Israelis are killed and at least 54 injured in a suicide bombing at the popular Cafe Moment. In the Netanya attack, two Palestinian terrorists shoot dead two people and injure about 50 others in the city’s seaside hotel district. One of those killed is a 9-month-old infant from South Africa whose family is visiting relatives in Israel. An Israeli civilian also is killed in the crossfire between police and the terrorists.
March 12, 2002 — Six Israelis are killed and seven wounded while traveling close to the Lebanese border. The six are shot by terrorists who opened fire on vehicles traveling a highway in the Western Galilee. Israeli officials later say the gunmen were Hezbollah members who had infiltrated into Israel from Lebanon. In another incident that day, one Israeli is killed and one moderately wounded in a shooting attack near a West Bank settlement.
March 17, 2002 — A Palestinian suicide bomber seriously wounds 22 Israelis when he blows himself up in Jerusalem. The attack occurs near a bus at a busy intersection in Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood. In another incident, one Israeli is killed and at least 10 wounded when a gunman fires at pedestrians in Kfar Saba. The gunman is shot dead by local police officers.
March 20, 2002 — A Palestinian suicide bomber kills seven people and wounds more than 30 in northern Israel. The bombing takes place on an Egged bus near the Israeli Arab town of Umm el-Fahm, close to Afula. The bus is ripped in two by the large quantity of explosives.
March 21, 2002 — A Palestinian bomber kills at least two people and wounds 87 in downtown Jerusalem. The attack occurs along King George Street near the corner with Agrippas Street. The Al-Aksa Brigade of Arafat’s Fatah movement claims responsibility for the blast.
March 24, 2002 — An Israeli woman is shot and killed near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
March 27, 2002 — Twenty-nine people are killed in a suicide bombing at a Passover seder in a Netanya hotel. More than 100 people are wounded in what becomes known as the “Passover Massacre.”
March 29, 2002 — Two people are killed when a Palestinian suicide bomber strikes at a Jerusalem supermarket. The bomber is identified as a teen-aged woman from a refugee camp. She is the third woman to carry out a suicide bombing since the intifada began.
March 30, 2002 — Some 30 Israelis are wounded when a terrorist blows up a Tel Aviv cafe. The Al-Aksa Brigade claims responsibility.
March 31, 2002 — A suicide bomber attacks a restaurant in Haifa, killing 15 people and wounding about 35 others. Hours later, a second bomber detonates his explosives outside a clinic in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, wounding at least four people.
April 1, 2002 — An Israeli policeman dies blocking a suicide bombing at a downtown Jerusalem roadblock. Earlier that day, an Israeli is killed near Jerusalem’s Har Homa neighborhood by a Palestinian sniper.
April 10, 2002 — Eight Israelis are killed and 14 wounded in a suicide bus bombing near Haifa. The powerful blast demolishes the bus, which was crowded with commuters traveling from Haifa to Jerusalem.
April 12, 2002 — Six people are killed and 75 injured when a suicide bomber attacks Jerusalem’s main outdoor market. The female terrorist strikes in the Mahane Yehuda market just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell meets in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The Al-Aksa Brigade claims responsibility.
April 27, 2002 — Palestinian terrorists wearing Israeli army uniforms infiltrate a Jewish settlement and killed four people, including a 5-year-old girl. The attack occurs after at least two terrorists cut through the perimeter fence of the Adura settlement near Hebron. They burst into several homes, shooting some of the victims as they lay sleeping, before escaping toward Palestinian-controlled Hebron.
May 7, 2002 — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cuts short his visit to Washington following a suicide bombing near Tel Aviv. The attack at a pool hall in Rishon le-Zion kills 15 and injures more than 60. It takes place as Sharon is meeting President Bush at the White House.
May 8, 2002 — A suicide bomber botches an attack near Haifa. The bomb goes off, perhaps prematurely, as the terrorist approaches a group of soldiers waiting at a bus station near the Megiddo Junction. The bomber, who is severely wounded in the blast, is dragged off by a robot before being taken to a hospital.
May 10, 2002 — At least four people are injured in a bomb explosion in Beersheba in the Negev.
May 19, 2002 — At least three Israelis are killed and at least 58 injured in a suicide bombing in Netanya. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claims responsibility for the attack, carried out by a terrorist dressed in an Israeli army uniform.
May 20, 2002 — A suicide bomber kills himself but causes no other injuries in northern Israel. The bomber blows himself up at a bus station near Afula when police approach him for questioning. The terrorist had tried to board a bus carrying workers to a factory, but was told it was a private bus. Suspicious passengers then alerted police.
May 22, 2002 — Two Israelis are killed and at least 40 injured in a suicide bombing in the town of Rishon le-Zion. The Al-Aksa Brigade claims responsibility.
May 23, 2002 — A bomb explodes beneath a tanker truck that pulls into the Pi Glilot gas depot in Herzliya. No one is hurt, and workers douse a small fire that police say could have been a disaster of catastrophic proportions.
May 24, 2002 — A man attempts to drive a car loaded with explosives into a Tel Aviv night club, but a security guard shoots and kills him, setting off an explosion outside the club. Five Israelis are lightly injured. The Al-Aksa Brigade claims responsibility.
May 27, 2002 — An 18-month-old girl and her grandmother are killed in a suicide bombing in a Tel Aviv suburb. The attack takes place in the central shopping center in Petach Tikva. More than 40 people are wounded, six of them seriously. The Al-Aksa Brigade claims responsibility.
May 28, 2002 — An Israeli is killed and his brother wounded in a Palestinian attack on a West Bank road. Palestinian gunmen ambushed the brothers’ car as it was traveling between the settlements of Beit El and Ofra. Later that night, three yeshiva high school students are killed and two wounded by a Palestinian gunman who infiltrates the settlement of Itamar. The terrorist is shot dead by the settlement security guard.
June 5, 2002 — 17 Israelis, including 13 soldiers, are killed in a car-bomb explosion beside a bus in northern Israel. At least 40 people are wounded, 10 of them seriously, in the attack near the town of Megiddo. The Egged bus was traveling from Tel Aviv to Tiberias when the driver of an explosives-laden car pulled up alongside and detonated his cargo. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility.
June 8, 2002 — Two Palestinian gunmen infiltrate the settlement of Karmei Tzur in the Etzion bloc, slaying three Israelis, including a woman who is nine months pregnant. One of the gunmen is killed and another escapes.
June 11, 2002 — A 15-year-old girl is killed and more than 10 people are injured when a suicide bomber strikes outside a falafel stand in the Israeli coastal city of Herzliya. Earlier in the day, three Israeli teens are wounded in a roadside bombing. The bomb explodes as dozens of students who had been picking cherries leave a field near the settlement of Kiryat Arba and head toward their bus.
June 17, 2002 — A suicide bomber blows himself up near a group of Israeli border police, but causes no injuries. The blast occurs in Israeli territory near the West Bank.
June 18, 2002 — At least 19 Israelis are killed and 52 wounded in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem. The explosion occurs on a crowded bus during the morning rush hour. Most of the passengers are office workers and students on their way to school. Hamas claims responsibility.
June 19, 2002 — At least seven Israelis are killed when a suicide bomber strikes at a hitchhiking post in Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood. Two of the fatalities die in surgery after the attack, which injures some 38 Israelis. The Al-Aksa Brigade claims responsibility.
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